A Three-Dimensional Animated Model of Abomasal Displacement and Volvulus

Abstract

Displacement and volvulus of the abomasum is commonly seen by every bovine practitioner working in a dairy practice. Understanding the anatomy and position of the abomasum is now second nature for people with experience. Veterinarians have to remember their old days in the classroom when the teacher was trying to explain how the abomasum was moving around in the abdomen. It takes a lot of experiences, sometimes acquired the hard way, to understand the topography of abomasal displacement or volvulus. Three-dimensional (3-D) modelization and animation have been used in movies and videogames for a while. Recently, the advances of software and computer capacity have enabled more complex animation with non-geometrical form, like organs of living species. The resulting computer-generated images have progressed so significantly that they are not easily distinguished from reality. Three-dimensional (3-D) modelization and animation is a useful tool to explain complex phenomena, and abomasal volvulus is one of them. Our goal was to create a 3-D model of abomasal displacement and volvulus as a teaching tool for veterinary students.