Image constrained finite element modelling for real-time surgical simulation and guidance

Accurate physically based biomechanical modelling of tissue deformation is important to surgical simulation and image guided intervention. Achieving real-time performance whilst maintaining relatively accurate simulation result has been a challenging problem to resolve. The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel yet practical image constrained finite element modelling framework for real-time tissue deformation modelling. The accuracy of the proposed framework is validated with respiratory motion modelling and the proposed framework is incorporated into the Open Source SOFA framework, thus facilitating its use for other subject-specific motion modelling and real-time surgical simulation tasks.