Tubes in tubes: catheter navigation in blood vessels and its applications

The construction of realistic simulators for medical procedures is increasi ngly important. We describe here a physical model and a numerical algorithm to simulate the insertion and navigation of a catheter into an arterial sy stem. A novel formulation of the elasticity of thin rods was developed for modeling the catheter. The catheter bends and twists within the blood vesse ls, not simply tracking a central curve. The inner artery walls are modeled as rigid surfaces; this constraint of catheter containment within rigid wa lls is implemented through the use of a wall potential. The model has been integrated into an interactive system, with visualization and a direct cath eter input interface (previously described), called da Vinci (Visual naviga tion of catheter insertion). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.