We present algorithms for simulating and visualizing the insertion and steering of needles through deformable tissues for surgical training and planning. Needle insertion is an essential component of manyclinical procedures such as biopsies, injections, neurosurgery, and brachytherapy cancer treatment. The success of these procedures dependson accurate guidanceofthe needletiptoaclinical target while avoiding vital tissues. Needle insertion deforms body tissues, making accurate placement difficult. Our interactive needle insertion simulator models the coupling between a steerable needle and deformable tissue. We introduce (1) a novel algorithm for local remeshing that quickly enforces the conformity of a tetrahedral mesh to a curvilinear needle path, enabling accurate computation of contact forces, (2) an efficient method for coupling a 3D finite element simulation with a 1D inextensible rod with stick-slip friction, and (3) optimizations that reduce the computation time for physically based simulations.We can realistically and interactively simulate needle insertion into a prostate mesh of 13,375 tetrahedra and 2,763 vertices at a 25 Hz frame rate on an 8-core 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon PC. The simulation models prostate brachytherapy with needles of varying stiffness, steering needles around obstacles, and supports motion planning for robotic needle insertion. We evaluate the accuracyof the simulation by comparing against real-world experiments in which flexible, steerable needles were inserted into gel tissue phantoms.

Chentanez N., Alterovitz R., Ritchie D., Cho L., Hauser K., Goldberg K, Shewchuk R. J., O’Brien F. J. "Interactive Simulation of Surgical Needle Insertion and Steering" In The Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH 2009, New Orleans August 3-7, 2009

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