Numerical Models of the Human Body applied to EMC-Problems in the Surgery Rooms of the Future

Many problems in the field „Electromagetic Compatibility in Surgery Rooms of the Future“ can only be solved by taking the body of the patient into account. Resereach can approach these problems in two ways. The first way deals with different experiments and body phantoms which experimentally show the impact of electromagnetic fields on the human body. The second approach are numerical models to check and validate the experimental results. This paper presents two experimental studies with different experimental outcome and tries to verify their results. In the first study - an in vivo and in vitro study - the impact of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes was examined. No significant heating of any structure could be observed, however a significant voltage induction was measured. A numerical study using a high-resolution model of a human head with an implanted DBS-electrode concerning the RF-excitation could verify these results. On the other hand a study concerned with heart- pacemaker-leads shows a significant heating effect of the examined leads during RF-pulsation. Another numerical model has been set up to examine these heating effects. The results of this model show that heating of electrode-tips must be considered in further investigations.