Narrowed Posterior Nasal Airway Limits Efficacy of Anterior Septoplasty.

Predicting symptomatic relief after septoplasty has been difficult. Minimal cross-sectional area (mCSA) measured by acoustic rhinometry and airflow resistance () measured by rhinomanometry have been used to select surgical candidates with mixed success. An important assumption is that mCSA and resistance are tightly coupled, but studies have reported weak or no correlation.

Virtual septoplasty: a method to predict surgical outcomes for patients with nasal airway obstruction.

Purpose: A deviated nasal septum is the most common etiology for nasal airway obstruction (NAO), and septoplasty is the most common surgical procedure performed by ear-nose-throat surgeons in adults. However, quantitative criteria are rarely adopted to select patients for surgery, which may explain why up to 50% of patients report persistent or recurrent symptoms of nasal obstruction postoperatively. This study reports a systematic virtual surgery method to identify patients who may benefit from septoplasty.

Normative ranges of nasal airflow variables in healthy adults.

Purpose: Virtual surgery planning based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of nasal airflow has the potential to improve surgical outcomes for patients with nasal airway obstruction (NAO). Virtual surgery planning requires normative ranges of airflow variables, but few studies to date have quantified inter-individual variability of nasal airflow among healthy subjects. This study reports CFD simulations of nasal airflow in 47 healthy adults.

Airflow limitation in a collapsible model of the human pharynx: physical mechanisms studied with fluid-structure interaction simulations and experiments.

The classical Starling Resistor model has been the paradigm of airway collapse in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) for the last 30 years. Its theoretical framework is grounded on the wave-speed flow limitation (WSFL) theory. Recent observations of negative effort dependence in OSA patients violate the predictions of the WSFL theory.

Grain size-dependent crystal plasticity constitutive model for polycrystal materials.

Consideration of a core and mantle configuration for individual grains is a prominent method to capture the grain size-dependence in the constitutive models for polycrystal material. The mantle represents a region of the grain volume near the grain boundary where mechanical deformation is influenced by the grain boundaries, while the core represents the inner region of the grain volume. The grain size-dependence is then realized by assigning a set of values for the mechanical properties in the mantle that are different from those of the core region.