Effect of Particle Diameter and Density on Acoustic Drug Delivery to Maxillary Sinus – a Sensitivity Study

Abstract

Acoustic drug delivery to human maxillary sinus is a novel technique in the field of targeted drug delivery. This paper investigates the effect of drug particles' diameter and density on the efficiency of drug delivery to maxillary sinus through the direct computational aero-acoustics. A computational fluid dynamic model (CFD) using the discrete phase model has been developed and employed to simulate the transport pattern of the drug particles. For sensitivity study, a simplified model of nosesinus comprising a nasal cavity, ostium and maxillary sinus has been utilised. It has been concluded that, in an acoustic field, decreasing the particle mass increases the particle entrainment coefficient due to the enhancement of the amplitude (entrainment coefficient) of the particle motion. The results also show that an increase in particles' diameter and density decreases the acoustics stokes number, which negatively affects the drug delivery efficiency.