Three-dimensional finite-element code for electrosurgery and thermal ablation simulations

A computing system for performing a simulation of an electrosurgical procedure on tissue, the system comprising:

• at least one processor coupled to a memory storing a program of instructions, wherein when the program is executed on the at least one processor, the at least one processor performs the instructions of:
• generating a three-dimensional model of a medium comprising at least one material region representing a physical object or a region of the tissue;
• dividing the model of the medium into a plurality of hexahedron elements to generate a three-dimensional conformal mesh;
• assigning each element to a corresponding at least one material region;
• calculating at least one of an electrical energy solution and a thermal transport solution based on at least one mathematical model, the plurality of hexahedron elements and finite element method;
• updating at least one property value of the at least one material region at least once in response to temperature changes based on an empirically derived value;
• wherein at least one of the electrical energy solution and the thermal transport solution is updated as a function of the at least one property value;
• and
• an output device which outputs at least one of a graphical representation representing at least one form of the electrical energy solution and one form of the thermal transport solution.

A computer-readable storage medium storing a set of computer-executable instructions for performing a simulation of an electrosurgical procedure on tissue, the computer-executable instructions comprising the steps of:

• generating a three-dimensional model of a medium comprising at least one material region representing a physical object or a region of the tissue;
• dividing the model of the medium into a plurality of hexahedron elements to generate a three-dimensional conformal mesh;
• assigning each element to a corresponding at least one material region;
• calculating at least one of an electrical energy solution and a thermal transport solution based on at least one mathematical model, the plurality of hexahedron elements and finite element method;
• updating at least one property value of the at least one material region at least once in response to temperature changes based on an empirically derived value;
• updating at least one of the electrical energy solution and the thermal transport solution as a function of the at least one property value;
• and
• generating and displaying at least one graphical representation representing at least one form of the electrical energy solution and one form of the thermal transport solution on an output device.