A surgical simulation system for predicting facial soft tissue deformation

In the field of cranio-maxillofacial (CMF) surgery, surgical simulation is becoming a very powerful tool to plan surgery and simulate surgical results before actually performing a CMF surgical procedure. Reliable prediction of facial soft tissue changes is in particular essential for better preparation and to shorten the time taken for the operation. This paper presents a surgical simulation system to predict facial soft tissue changes caused by the movement of bone segments during CMF surgery. Two experiments were designed to test the feasibility of this simulation system. The test results demonstrate the feasibility of fast and good prediction of post-operative facial appearance, with texture. Our surgical simulation system is applicable to computer-assisted CMF surgery.