Visualization of vascular injuries in extremity trauma

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Accurate simulation of traumatic injuries and associated hemorrhage is crucial for medical research and training.
• Existing computational models often lack detailed anatomical fidelity or comprehensive simulation of bleeding dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate a novel computational framework for simulating injury and hemorrhage in a patient-specific anatomical model.
• To integrate particle-based methods for simulating both tissue damage and blood flow dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Reconstruction of a 3D anatomical model from CT scans, differentiating skin, bone, and muscle tissues.
• Simulation of ballistic injury using the Material Point Method (MPM) to define injury geometry.
• Modeling of hemorrhage using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) with Brinkman equations for blood-tissue interaction.

Main Results:

• Successful generation of injury geometry and simulation of blood particle movement within the damaged anatomical model.
• Demonstration of the simulation framework on a lower leg injury scenario, visualizing hemorrhage.
• Validation of particle-based methods for coupled injury and bleeding simulation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed computational strategy effectively simulates injury and hemorrhage with anatomical accuracy.
• This integrated approach offers a powerful tool for understanding trauma mechanics and improving medical interventions.
• Further development can enhance realism and expand applications in forensic science and surgical planning.