Adaptive surface representation based on homogeneous hexahedrons for interactive simulation of soft tissue cutting

Area of Science:

• Medical Simulation
• Computational Geometry
• Finite Element Analysis

Background:

• Interactive simulation of soft tissue cutting is crucial for surgical training.
• Traditional methods face significant computational challenges due to topological and geometrical changes.
• This paper proposes approximating gaps between model boundaries and finite elements to manage complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a computationally efficient method for soft tissue cutting simulation.
• To improve the real-time performance of surgical simulations.
• To address the burden of topological and geometrical changes in finite element models.

Main Methods:

• Deformations calculated using hexahedrons; surface structure embedded for visualization and collision detection.
• Separate handling of hexahedron and surface structure cutting.
• Intersection duplication of hexahedrons and adaptive surface conformation to cutting paths.
• Introduction of partial elements to compensate for cut surface inaccuracies.

Main Results:

• The proposed method reduced additional computational burden to 34% and 37.12% compared to previous methods.
• Theoretical analysis confirmed the superiority of the proposed method in terms of computational operations.
• Simulation results demonstrate significant efficiency gains.

Conclusions:

• The novel method enhances real-time performance in surgical simulations.
• Adaptive approximation of cut surfaces is key to improved efficiency.
• This approach offers a more viable solution for complex surgical procedure simulation.