title: Developing clinically relevant aspects of the nuss procedure surgical simulator.
abstract: Surgical simulators can avail minimizing the risk of surgery and help achieving a better outcome. This is also the case for the Nuss procedure, a minimally invasive surgery for correcting pectus excavatum (PE) - a congenital chest wall deformity. A simulator can be of great benefit if it provides realistic behavior and representation of the actual surgery. In this paper, we address various clinical aspects of the procedure for a training simulation, reproducing a virtual model of the patient's thoracic cavity and internal organs with realistic textures, as well as physical behaviors. In addition, a high fidelity haptic force feedback system is constructed to provide the surgeon with a close-to-real sensation while interacting with the virtual model.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chemlal
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng., Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Krzysztof J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rechowicz
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng., Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Obeid
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and Eastern Virginia Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng., Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Frederic D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: McKenzie
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D005660:Funnel Chest / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D014584:User-Computer Interface