They say practice makes perfect and that’s certainly the case when learning to use ultrasound for needle guidance. All you need is an ultrasound system, a needle and a phantom.

There are lots of commercial ultrasound phantoms available, many of which are expensive and short lived, especially after repetitive needle punctures. You can also make one with a few ingredients you can pick up at the grocery store.

We enlisted Chris Eddy of Promed-HR to come up with a simple phantom recipe. Watch our 45 second video to see how to make and use a Tofu Ultrasound Phantom.

While the tofu phantom might not image as well as a commercial phantom, it’s simple to put together and it’s particularly useful for ultrasound needle guidance training.