Why most of the intra-operative medical robotic devices do not use biomechanical models? some clues to explain the bottlenecks and the needed research breakthroughs

Abstract

This invited lecture addresses the frontier that biomechanics is now facing with the development of computer-assisted devices that can provide intra-operative assistance of the surgical gesture. The underlying idea is to use patient-specific biomechanical models during surgery, i.e. in the operating theatre. In that case, three main challenges need to be solved to be compatible with the clinical constraints: (1) a very fast generation of patient-specific models, (2) an in vivo estimation of the patient-specific constitutive equations of the soft tissues, and (3) interactive numerical simulations.