Modeling of upper gastrointestinal tract for ERCP simulation

Abstract

This thesis develops a model of upper gastrointestinal tract for ERCP simulation. The model helps to train the endoscopic procedure to navigate from esophagus to duodenum. The stomach model for ERCP simulation should consider two requirements, i.e., high resolution for the entire region and large deformation in the greater curvature of the stomach. In order to meet these requirements, locally-applied mass-spring system with linear interpolation is developed for the stomach model. The process to build the locally-applied mass-spring system with linear interpolation is as follows. First, link-based data is generated from the mesh-based data acquired from imaging software. Second, different types of nodes are assigned for mass-spring system and linear interpolation based on the deformation pattern. Finally, mass-spring system and linear interpolation is applied to these nodes. Computation time is reduced due to decrease of mass nodes in the mass-spring system, while simultaneously maintaining high resolution. This model has a similar accuracy and simulation effects with mass-spring only system.