Finite element modeling of haptic thermography: A novel approach for brain tumor detection during minimally invasive neurosurgery

• “Haptic thermography” is introduced for diagnosis and localization of brain tumors.
• The brain tissue is characterized as a hyper-viscoelastic material.
• The real 3D models of brain and tumor are developed from brain MRI images.
• A finite element approach is utilized to study proficiency of haptic thermography.
• Surface temperature distribution is well representative of superficial brain tumors.

Intraoperative Thermal Imaging (ITI) is a novel neuroimaging method that can potentially locate tissue abnormalities and hence improves surgeon’s diagnostic ability. In the present study, thermography technique coupled with artificial tactile sensing method called “haptic thermography” is utilized to investigate the presence of an abnormal object as a tumor with an elevated temperature relative to the normal tissue in the brain. The brain tissue is characterized as a hyper-viscoelastic material to be descriptive of mechanical behavior of the brain tissue during tactile palpation. Based on a finite element approach, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data of a patient diagnosed to have a brain tumor is utilized to simulate and analyze the capability of haptic thermography in detection and localization of brain tumor. Steady-state thermal results prove that temperature distribution is an appropriate outcome of haptic thermography for the superficial tumors while heat flux distribution can be used as an extra thermal result for deeply located tumors.