Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran
Collaboration with: SUNY-Upstate Otolaryngology, Drs Kellman and Villwock
contact: bhaskaran@cornell.edu
Nasal airway obstruction (NAO) is a common condition leading to a poor
quality of life. A variety of surgical therapies such as Rhinoplasty have
been developed to ameliorate this condition. Unfortunately, between 25-50%
of current patients will ultimately be unsatisfied with their surgical
results. Part of the problem is a current inability to reliably correlate
subjective and objective measures of NAO. While tools such as acoustic
rhinometry have been used to objectively assess the airway, they have not
been found useful for pre-operative planning. More recently, computational
fluid dynamics (CFD), in combination with anatomically accurate 3D CAT scan
and MRI data, has been used to study nasal airflow and resistance with some
success.
The objective of this research is to use the ANSYS FLUENT CFD software to
better predict the functional outcome of rhinoplasty and aid in selection of
the best possible surgical procedure based on a patient’s individual
anatomy. 3D meshes created from CAT scans and MRI data will be deformed in
ANSYS FLUENT to mimic surgical changes. CFD simulations will then be run to
model aspects of the nasal airway post this “virtual surgery.”
In addition to virtual surgery using CFD, Drs Kellman and Villwock will be
performing actual surgery on cadavers. Since cadavers do not heal and
post-surgical scarring is a non-issue, multiple surgical procedures – from
least invasive to most invasive – will be performed on the same specimen.
CAT scans will be obtained pre- and post-surgery. CFD will again be used to
model changes in the nasal airway. We will also correlate CFD data with
objective data from the cadavers using acoustic rhinometry and/or
rhinomanometry.