ESR 8: Biological Membrane Cutting and Tearing Simulation within Clinical Time Scales with Application to Cataract Surgery

Early Stage Researcher: Saurabh Deshpande
Host institution: University of Luxembourg (UL, LU)
Supervisor: Prof. Stéphane Bordas, UL
Clinical expertise co-supervisor: Prof. David Gaucher, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Strasbourg
Further institution involved: InSimo (FR)

Objectives

Fast solvers for cutting and tearing with controlled accuracy and robustness within clinical timescales for biomedical applications are still a significant challenge. This makes it difficult to provide integrated design and planning environments for surgical operations. We will develop the first mesh-adaptive framework for cutting hyperelastic biological membranes with real-time mesh adaptation relying on goal oriented error control. We will apply the new framework to a specific approach to cataract surgery where pre-cuts propagate under applied forces. We will control the discretisation error using crack-driving-force-oriented error estimation using the dual weighted residual approach. The geometry will be discretised using NURBS in collaboration with ESR12, which will contribute to facilitating the automatic creation of simulation models for eye surgery.

Expected Results

A goal-oriented discretisation adaptive software pipeline for interactive cutting soft biological membranes

Planned research stays

  • UL (5 months): Initial training.
  • InSimo (4 months): Training in real-time simulation and image-mesh model generation
  • UL (6 months): Develop the fracture model, model order reduction and goal-oriented error estimation
  • InSimo (4 months): Treat patient-specific cataract surgery cases and validate the approach on experimental facilities at the experimental facilities at Hospital civil, Strasbourg on phantom membranes
  • UL (17 months): finalize work and write papers and thesis writing