Surgem: Interactive patient-specific anatomy-editor for hemodynamic analysis and surgery planning

Surgem is an interactive anatomy-editing tool for surgery planning developed to enable the surgeon to directly edit the detailed models of patient-specific anatomies according to the contemplated surgical options and to compare such options by using the results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Surgem combines powerful free-form shape deformation tools with new human-shape interaction (HSI) technologies to facilitate interactive shape alterations and finite element mesh generation. Surgem is used by the surgeon at the surgery planning phase to design and evaluate possible modifications of patient-specific anatomies of congenital heart defects involving complex geometric topologies and tortuous three-dimensional blood flow pathways with multiple inlets and outlets. Surgem make it possible to freely deform the lumen surface and to bend and position baffles through direct manipulation of the 3D models with both hands, thus eliminating the tedious and time-consuming phase of entering the desired geometry using traditional computer-aided design (CAD) systems. The 3D models of the modified anatomy are seamlessly exported and meshed for CFD analysis. The combined design/analysis cycle is used for comparing and optimizing surgical plans. By reducing the cost of patient-specific shape design and analysis, Surgem make it possible to specify and analyze a large number of surgical options and to envision large clinical studies for validating the predictive value of CFD simulations in surgery planning. Fig. 1. Surgem is used to modify a patient’s intra-atrial model of the inferior vena cava (IVC) interactively using both hands to specify what may be the outcome of an operation envisioned by the heart surgeon. The envisioned shape is meshed and sent to CFD analysis. The results of the analysis help the surgeon select between various surgical options.