The Application of Neural Operators to Predict Skin Evolution After Burn Trauma

Abstract

Burn injuries present a significant global health challenge. Among the most severe long-term consequences are contractures, which can lead to functional impairments and disfigurement. Understanding and predicting the evolution of post-burn wounds is crucial for developing effective treatment strategies. Traditional mathematical models, while accurate, are often computationally expensive and time-consuming, limiting their practical application. Recent advancements in machine learning, particularly in deep learning, offer promising alternatives for accelerating these predictions. This study investigates the use of a deep operator network (DeepONet), a type of neural operator, as a surrogate model for finite element simulations for predicting post-burn wound evolution. We trained DeepONets on various wound shapes, enhancing the architecture by incorporating initial wound shape information and applying sine augmentation to enforce boundary conditions. The most sophisticated model achieved an R² score of 0.9960, indicating strong predictive accuracy. Additionally, the model generalised well to convex combinations of basic shapes, with an R² score of 0.9944, and provided reliable predictions over an extended period of up to one year. These findings suggest that DeepONets can effectively serve as a surrogate for traditional finite element methods in simulating post-burn wound evolution, with potential applications in medical treatment planning.