A computational model of the human colon for use in medical robotics

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of modeling the human colon and analyzes its effectiveness as a finite element analysis (FEA) tool for testing conventional and robotic colonoscope technologies. FEA has been used to model colon tissue before, but these analyses have been carried out on smaller tissue samples, such as to fit strain energy functions to mechanical testing data or to explore the inflation-extension response of a section of the colon. The full colon has not yet been modeled in this way, and this study aims to show the usefulness of such a tool for testing endoscopic devices for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the colon. Data from the literature and databases have been used to approximate the stress response of the tissues, and a critical analysis of the limitations of the approximations has been carried out. Characteristic colonoscope loops were created to analyze the mechanical response of the colon and provide comparable results to conventional colonoscopy. The results showed how stress would be propagated along the length of the colon and how neighboring structures can affect the stresses and strains experienced by the colon wall, demonstrating the need for and capabilities of a full FEA model of the colon to test endoscopic devices.