A Meshless Method to Simulate the Interactions Between A Large Soft Tissue and A Surgical Grasper

Abstract

Realistic simulation of tool-tissue interactions can help to develop more effective surgical training systems and simulators. This study used a finite element and meshless modeling approaches to simulate the grasping procedure of a large intra-abdominal organ, i.e., kidney, during laparoscopic surgery. Results indicated that the accuracy of meshless method was comparable with that of the finite element, with the root mean square errors in the range of 0.8 to 2.3 mm in different directions. For the model presented in this study, the computational cost of the meshless method, was much less than that of the finite element model.