COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS FOR AEROSOL TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS TO THE MAXILLARY SINUS

• Published in: JIBI INKOKA TEMBO Vol. 56; no. Supplement3; pp. s196 - s201
• Main Authors: Iwata, Noboru, Yamamoto, Takahisa, Fujisawa, Toshiyuki, Nakata, Seiichi, Fujii, Naoko, Suzuki, Kenji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Society of Oto-rhino-laryngology Tokyo 15.08.2013; 耳鼻咽喉科展望会
• Subjects: 3-D model of nasal cavity; aerosol transport phenomena; CFD解析; computational fluid dynamics; CT data; CTデータ; エアロゾル輸送現象; 鼻腔3次元モデル
• ISSN: 0386-9687; 1883-6429
• DOI: 10.11453/orltokyo.56.s196

There are individual differences in the shapes of the nasal cavity, ostium and maxillary sinus that might affect the intranasal transport phenomena of aerosol therapy. In recent years, there have been developments and advances in medical imaging techniques, especially in computerized tomography (CT), that provide detailed information on the human body. In this paper, we report on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to define the intranasal aerosol transport characteristics and transfer characteristics to the maxillary sinus based on CT data and numerical simulation models. The analysis was conducted on two subjects: one was a female in her forties whose nasal cavity had enough space to allow air ventilation (Case 1) and the other was a male with nasal obstruction caused by a deviated nasal septum and sub-ostium (Case 2). From the results of CFD, aerosol particles were widely transported in the nasal cavity of Case 1, but were hardly transferred to the maxillary sinus via the ostium. On the other hand, in Case 2, transportation of the aerosol particles was inhibited due to the deviated nasal septum and nasal obstruction. Aerosol transfer to the maxillary sinus was, however, relatively high as compared with that in Case 1. It is for these reasons that high-velocity flow is found near the ostium and Case 2 had not only a main ostium, but also a sub-ostium. These results here show that the deviated nasal septum did not necessarily inhibit aerosol transfer between the nasal cavity and the maxillary sinus.