Real-time stent and balloon simulation for stenosis treatment
The base of all training in interventional radiology relies on the development of the core skills in manipulating the instruments. Computer simulators are emerging to help in this task with virtual reality simulators and haptic devices. This paper extends our previous interventional radiology training framework with two new virtual instruments: a stent and a balloon, both driven by the previously existing catheters and guidewires. Both the balloon and stent are used to treat stenosis, a partial or total blockage of an artery. The inflating balloon and/or the expanding stent are used to increase and maintain the radius of the artery during the intervention. A massspring particle system is used to model the new instruments. This modelling allows realistic instrument behaviour in real time, even in complex vascular anatomies, because of efficient collision interactions. The collision response is based on four constraints applied to the instruments: external force, spring force, and 2D and 3D bending forces. The behaviour of our simulated instruments has been visually assessed by experienced interventional radiologists, who described it as realistic and potentially helpful for training.
stent balloon simulation training interventional radiology massspring model