Design-Stage Feasibility Study of an Integrated 3D-Printed Nerve Conduit and Portable Monitoring System
(1) Background: Peripheral nerve repair requires structural guidance and reliable functional assessment, yet current commercial conduits lack internal microarchitecture and do not integrate real-time monitoring capabilities. This study presents an engineering-focused feasibility assessment of a dual system combining a microstructured 3D-printed nerve guidance conduit with a portable neuromuscular monitoring device. (2) Methods: Two conduit variants were digitally designed based on median nerve anatomical dimensions and fabricated using FDM (PLA) for large-scale prototypes and SLA for high-resolution miniaturized models. Structural behavior was evaluated through simplified finite element analysis (FEA) under physiological pressure ranges (1000–5000 Pa). A portable monitoring system incorporating surface EMG electrodes, an AD620 instrumentation amplifier, and an ESP32 microcontroller was assembled and tested non-invasively on a healthy adult volunteer to verify signal acquisition functionality. Results: Both conduit designs were successfully fabricated with accurate reproduction of internal microchannels. FEA indicated negligible deformation (1.41 × 10−11–1.69 × 10−10 mm) and low stress values (0.0129–0.155 N/m2), confirming structural stability under the simplified loading model. The monitoring system recorded stable EMG signals (3200–3500 ADC units), demonstrating correct operation of the acquisition chain during controlled stimulation. (3) Conclusions: This work provides a design-stage engineering feasibility demonstration of an integrated platform combining a microstructured 3D-printed conduit with a portable neuromuscular monitoring device. The study does not include biological validation; prototypes were evaluated solely for geometric and mechanical fidelity; and the monitoring system was tested only for functional signal acquisition. Future work will address biocompatibility, in vitro assays, and in vivo evaluation.
Authors
- Leonard Gabriel Mitu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4748-1951)
- Angela Repanovici (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8748-5332)
- Maxim Miriam
- Ileana Pantea
Institutions
- Transylvania University of Brașov (RO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Materials
- Published
- 2026-09-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19194029
- Primary Topic
- Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00