Authors:

Joel Laudo

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About Paper:

Tissue expansion is a common medical procedure that induces new skin growth to repair skin defects, assist in breast reconstruction, or produce new skin in situ for harvest and use elsewhere on the body. The process involves inserting an inflatable balloon under the skin and filling it with saline at regular intervals over a period of weeks to apply pressure to the surface of the skin, prompting the skin to grow. Tissue expansion is the most common method to create space for a breast implant in patients who are in the initial stages of breast reconstruction. However, the variability and unpredictability of the procedure can lead to complications and imprecise results. A recently developed computational model has made it possible to accurately predict the spatial and temporal variations of skin growth, with significant potential to reduce complications and standardize the procedure. In this work, we demonstrate a method to validate this model using data from a breast reconstruction patient undergoing tissue expansion. Using patient-specific geometry and protocol information, we built a personalized finite element model in the finite element software ABAQUS, simulated the expansion protocol over time in high fidelity using a custom PID controller implemented in user amplitude function (UAMP), applied our computational skin growth model through a user material subroutine (UMAT), and then compared the predicted growth to the growth observed directly in the patient. Our work establishes a basis for the future use of personalized finite element models as a predictive tool for clinical tissue expansion.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

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Co-authors:

Joel Laudo