An Interactive, Patient-Specific Virtual Surgical Planning System for Upper Airway Obstruction Treatments

Area of Science:

• Medical Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Surgical Planning

Background:

• Upper airway obstructions cause breathing difficulties and often necessitate surgery.
• Current surgical outcomes for these conditions are frequently suboptimal, with limited symptom relief.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design an interactive, patient-specific virtual surgical planning system for upper airway obstructions.
• To integrate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) into the surgical planning workflow.

Main Methods:

• Generating patient-specific 3D airway models from CT scans.
• Performing virtual surgeries by editing these models.
• Analyzing pre- and post-surgery flow characteristics using CFD.

Main Results:

• The prototype system is intuitive and interactive.
• It incorporates a potentially fast flow solver for near real-time clinician feedback.
• CFD analysis allows for assessment of symptom improvement.

Conclusions:

• The virtual surgical planning system shows promise for improving surgical outcomes in upper airway obstructions.
• This approach enables individualized surgical planning and outcome prediction.
• Near real-time feedback can enhance clinical decision-making.