An interactive surgical simulation tool to assess the consequences of a partial glossectomy on a biomechanical model of the tongue

Abstract

Oral cancer surgery has a negative influence on the quality of life (QOL). As a result of the complex physiology involved in oral functions, estimation of surgical effects on functionality remains difficult. We present a user-friendly biomechanical simulation of tongue surgery, including closure with suturing and scar formation, followed by an automated adaptation of a finite element (FE) model to the shape of the tongue. Different configurations of our FE model were evaluated and compared to a well-established FE model. We showed that the post-operative impairment as predicted by our model was qualitatively comparable to a patient case for five different tongue maneuvers.

Keywords:

• Partial glossectomy
• biomechanical model
• virtual surgery
• virtual therapy
• finite element method
• finite element analysis
• post-operative motion impairment
• functional impairment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Geolocation information

52,3493887, 4,8263059

Online media

https://figshare.com/s/bbe275aa9b4a94ee291d

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by private funding from the Virtutis Opis foundation, Mr B. Verwelius and, Mr W. de Graaf. The Department of Head and Neck Oncology and Surgery of the Netherlands Cancer Institute received a research grant from Atos Medical AB (Malmö, Sweden).