Enhanced pre-computed finite element models for surgical simulation.

ABSTRACT

Soft tissue modeling is an important component in effective surgical simulation systems. A pre-computed finite element method based on elastic models is well suited to modeling soft tissue deformation. This paper addresses two principal issues the flexibility of the pre-computed FE method and the approximation approach to non-linear elastic models. We describe a dynamic mechanism of the reconfiguration of the contacted nodes and the fixed boundary, without re-computing the inverse of the global stiffness matrix. The flexibility of the pre-computed models is described for both linear and non-linear elastic models.