Region-of-interest based finite element modelling of the brain-an approach to brain surgery simulation

One of the major problems in brain surgery simulation is to achieve both real-time performance and physical realism without compromising the necessary freedom to perform topological changes like cutting. In an attempt to solve the problem we present a new method for differentiating the spatial and temporal accuracy for the brain tissue models. Finite element methods are used for the modelling with a dynamic model applied to areas which require high accuracy and a static model for the remaining areas. The two models are integrated into one for the entire brain using condensation. The dynamic model is specified as a user-defined region-of-interest. The experiments carried out have shown promising results concerning spatial error and execution time