Dynamic material properties of human and animal livers

Abstract

Accurate characterization of the mechanical properties of soft tissues is important for diagnosing medical pathologies and developing solutions for them. With the recent advances in technologies leading to the development of surgical simulators, medical robots, and computer-assisted surgical planning systems, this topic has gained even more importance. However, most of the earlier research studies conducted with animal and human livers have focused on the investigation of static (strain-dependent) material properties. The number of studies investigating the dynamic material properties (time and frequency-dependent) of animal and human livers are much less than the ones investigating the static material properties. In fact, there is almost no data available in the literature showing the variation in dynamic material properties of healthy or diseased human liver as a function of excitation frequency.