Influence of Geometry and Mechanical Properties on the Accuracy of Patient-Specific Simulation of Women Pelvic Floor.

Abstract

The woman pelvic system involves multiple organs, muscles, ligaments, and fasciae where different pathologies may occur. Here we are most interested in abnormal mobility, often caused by complex and not fully understood mechanisms. Computer simulation and modeling using the finite element (FE) method are the tools helping to better understand the pathological mobility, but of course patient-specific models are required to make contribution to patient care. These models require a good representation of the pelvic system geometry, information on the material properties, boundary conditions and loading. In this contribution we focus on the relative influence of the inaccuracies in geometry description and of uncertainty of patient-specific material properties of soft connective tissues. We conducted a comparative study using several constitutive behavior laws and variations in geometry description resulting from the imprecision of clinical imaging and image analysis. We find that geometry seems to have the dominant effect on the pelvic organ mobility simulation results. Provided that proper finite deformation non-linear FE solution procedures are used, the influence of the functional form of the constitutive law might be for practical purposes negligible. These last findings confirm similar results from the fields of modeling neurosurgery and abdominal aortic aneurysms.