Research and development of a virtual reality finite element based model with the purpose of enabling surgical training and improved treatment practices - Exploratory phase

从生物力学的角度来看，脊柱手术是最复杂的手术之一，因为脊柱是一个复杂的机械系统。传统的脊柱外科训练非常昂贵，而且没有优化技能的获取。这个探索性阶段项目的目的是构想一个脊柱、周围组织和神经的3D模型。这一步骤的完成将导致后续的合作，旨在进行新的虚拟现实平台的研究、开发和实验验证，包括触觉反馈，关注常见的脊柱外科手术。简而言之，针对脊柱手术的虚拟现实外科训练器包括开放脊柱的视觉显示，临床医生通过手术工具触觉控制与之交互。反馈，包括触觉和视觉，都是由基于有限元分析的实时计算提供的，然后用户可以虚拟地执行手术过程。技术难题在于建立三维脊柱模型，然后将有限元模型离散化，在图形处理单元上优化并行计算，以便实时分析。该项目是CAE医疗保健公司和麦吉尔大学的Driscoll教授合作计划的探索性阶段，将寻求实现向商业提供基于计算有限元的脊柱手术虚拟现实训练器迈出的第一步。除了这一目标外，学生的合作和培训将有利于加拿大对生物医学工程师日益增长的需求。一个具有相关能力的跨学科研究团队与nserc参与申请的授予相结合，将确保这些好处得以实现。

Spinal surgeries are amongst the most complex from a biomechanical perspective considering the spine is anintricate mechanical system. Conventional training of spine surgeries is very costly and not optimized towardsskillset acquisition. The purpose of this exploratory phase project is to conceive a 3D model of the spine,surrounding tissues, and nerves. Completion of this step will then lead towards the subsequent collaborationsaimed to perform research, development and experimental validation of new virtual reality platform, inclusiveof haptic feedback, focusing of common spinal surgical procedures.In brief, a virtual reality surgical trainer, targeting spine surgery, comprises a visual display of an open spinewith which a clinician interacts by means of surgical tool haptic controls. The feedback, both haptic and visual,are provided by FEA based computations in real-time and then the user may virtually perform a surgicalprocedure. The technical challenge lies in the conception of a 3D spine model and then the discretization of afinite element model optimized for parallel computing on the graphical processing unit for real-time analysis.This project, an exploratory phase collaboration planned between CAE Healthcare and Prof. Driscoll fromMcGill University, will seek to achieve this first step towards the commercial offering of a computationallyfinite element based surgical virtual reality trainer for spine procedures. In addition to this targeted outcome,the collaboration and training of students will be of benefit to the growing demand of biomedical engineers inCanada. An inter-disciplinary research team with relevant competence in conjunction with the granting of thisNSERC Engage application will insure such benefits come to fruition.