Deformable modeling of facial tissue

While deformable object modeling has been studied in computer graphics for more than two decades, only few applications in surgical simulation have been developed which provide both real-time and physically realistic modeling of complex, non-linear, tissue deformations. Especially in craniofacial surgery the prediction of soft tissue changes is critical to the surgical outcome. Up until today the prediction of these tissue changes, and therefore the prognosis of the postoperative appearance of the patient, is still based on empirical studies of the relationship between bone and tissue movements-there is no physical model, which takes into account the individual patient anatomy. In this article the authors present a deformable tissue model, which allows the precise preoperative simulation of the resulting soft tissue changes during craniofacial surgery and the visualization of the patient´s postoperative appearance