Real-time electrocautery simulation for laparoscopic surgical environments.

We present a novel real-time technique for cutting during electrocautery procedures in surgical training. Our algorithm is based on cauterizing the part of the tissue that exceeds the critical vaporization temperature. The resulting topology changes due to cutting are accounted for in real-time. Results presented for the overall electrocautery cutting algorithm show that the real-time costs are minimal and thus allow interactive simulation.