Soft Tissue Modeling Using Tetrahedron Finite Element Method in Surgery Simulation

Biological soft tissue modeling and simulation is an important part in virtual surgery simulation. Finite element methods are valuable because of their extreme speed and high accuracy for soft tissue modeling, but they are not suitable for surgery incision simulation. In this paper, we propose a new method for soft tissue deformation and cutting simulation using a new linear elastic tetrahedron finite element method that can be used in soft tissue modeling simulation, and yet still achieve a satisfactory computing speed. The experimental result proved that this method allows a fast and physically accurate simulation of incision procedures.