In vivo simulation of shock wave lithotripsy: Wave focusing in inhomogeneous materials

Abstract

Shock wave generation and focusing in electrohydraulic, electromagnetic, and piezoelectric lithotripters are simulated numerically. Inhomogeneities associated with wave propagation in vivo are modeled using data from The Visible Human Project. The approximate time‐domain relaxation model of Yang and Cleveland (2005) was used to simulate attenuation and dispersion in the tissuelike media. The simulations utilize a MUSCL‐type shock capturing scheme with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). In vitro focal region pressure measurements compare favorably with available experimental data for each lithotripter type. Preliminary in vivo simulation results show significant dispersion associated with the nonuniform sound speed, including increases of up to 50% in focal pressure amplitudes and the presence of multiple pressure minima/maxima in the focal waveform. We will also discuss the extension of the AMR framework to account for cavitation via a previously developed ensemble‐averaged continuous two‐phase flow model.

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