A methodology for in silico endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) can involve some unfavorable complications such as endoleaks or stent-graft (SG) migration. Such complications, resulting from the complex mechanical interaction of vascular tissue, SG and blood flow or incompatibility of SG design and vessel geometry, are difficult to predict. Computational vascular mechanics models can be a predictive tool for the selection, sizing and placement process of SGs depending on the patient-specific vessel geometry and hence reduce the risk of potential complications after EVAR. In this contribution, we present a new in silico EVAR methodology to predict the final state of the deployed SG after intervention and evaluate the mechanical state of vessel and SG, such as contact forces and wall stresses. A novel method to account for residual strains and stresses in SGs, resulting from the precompression of stents during the assembly process of SGs, is presented. We suggest a parameter continuation approach to model various different sizes of SGs within one in silico EVAR simulation which can be a valuable tool when investigating the issue of SG oversizing. The applicability and robustness of the proposed methods are demonstrated on the example of a synthetic abdominal aortic aneurysm geometry.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1139-1164
Number of pages26
JournalBiomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology
Volume17
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 29752606

Keywords

Keywords

  • Abdominal aortic aneurysm, Endovascular aneurysm repair, Finite element method, Oversizing, Stent-graft