While many of us breathe easily through our noses, others have breathing difficulties that result from the shape of their nasal passageway and require the use of nasal sprays or, in extreme situations, nasal surgery. It is estimated that in the United States alone, surgery on nasal obstructions costs $100 million a year, while the cost of nasal medications is about $5 billion a year. CFD is now being used to explore issues of importance to this growing industry. In addition to illustrating the flow patterns inside a problematic nasal passageway, CFD can be used to study the deposition of pollutant and medicinal particles on the internal nasal surfaces and to optimize the design of respiratory drug delivery devices. The information provided by CFD can help doctors to better understand the nasal physiology and pathology.

Surface mesh of a nasal cavity reconstructed from a CT scan using AMIRA, from TGS, Inc., San Diego, California

Academic teams at the University of Pennsylvania, under Dr. Peter Scherer, and at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, under Dr. Daniel Kurtz, have been working on this problem. CFD studies using FIDAP have successfully elucidated flowfields in the nose region. Future plans include the development of a software tool that will allow doctors to perform CT scans and immediately convert the results to a CAD geometry that can be meshed for input into the CFD package. This would provide a quick analysis of flow patterns that are specific to a single patient. In addition to modeling the actual nasal cavity, doctors could simulate the cavity after removal of one or more obstructions. This preoperative optimization of the surgical procedure would be a significant step forward in the field of medical science. It is hoped that these pioneering CFD nasal simulations will lead to general benefits in a number of important health areas in years to come.

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