FlowKit Ltd: Multi-phase flow through porous media: Vertebroplasty

CFD simulation of cement injection into spinal vertebra. Meshfree CFD based on the lattice Boltzmann method makes it possible to overcome usual difficulties linked to the highly complex porous media.

Vertebroplasty is a medical spinal procedure in which bone cement is injected through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra with the goal of relieving back pain caused by vertebral compression fractures. Complications from these procedures can however occur and, occasionally, are fatal. Patient specific omputer simulation is an ideal tool to assess the risks of an intervention, and to provide a surgeon with recommendations for the amount of cement to be injected, and other parameters.
This type of simulation is however inaccessible to classical mesh-based CFD, as the extremely high porosity poses an unsurmountable to mesh generators. Our meshfree CFD solver has no such issues, and reproduces the full bone filling process with high accuracy.

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