Vector Didactic Illustration
Lumbar Puncture Procedure
Story
Lumbar Puncture is a procedure used to diagnose or treat a variety of conditions in the clinical setting. This procedure requires precise sterile technique, administration of local anesthetic, and insertion of a spinal needle to collect cerebrospinal fluid. When learning Lumbar Puncture, medical students and residents have difficulty mastering the nuances, such as needle depth and angle, needed to complete the procedure successfully. This illustrated handout of the Lumbar Puncture procedure focuses on areas of difficulty identified by instructors at the UIC Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute. A single Pantone color is used to further highlight sterile technique, key anatomical landmarks, internal structure, and correct placement of instruments. This illustration is intended to complement a written skill evaluation currently in use, so limited text was used.
Details
Client: UIC Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute
Audience: Medical Students and Residents
Format and Media: Printed 8.5x11" multipage handout
Software: Adobe Illustrator
Award
AMI Student Salon 2021, Award of Merit
Final Product
Research
I started my research process by watching instructional recordings of the Lumbar Puncture procedure online so I could familiarize myself with the general flow of the procedure and the instruments used. After I met with instructors from the simulation center over zoom, and they walked through the steps of the lumbar puncture protocol that would accompany this illustration. After discussing some of the technical details, I identified the areas where students struggled the most while learning this technique. From the instructors experience, the hardest step for students to understand was administering local anesthetic because it was difficult for them to visualize the three levels of injection and what that would look like internally.
After watching the demonstration I began researching further into the procedure and associated anatomy using Gray's Anatomy for Students and the Gilroy Atlas of Anatomy.
