Review on Simulation and Evaluation of Intravascular Prosthetic Device Using Finite Element Method and Computational Fluid Dynamics and Application to Simulate Aneurysm Formation

Abstract

This paper is a review of applications of Finite Element Method (FEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to evaluate design and performance of intravascular prosthetic devices used clinically today. This study is focused on devices such as stents, flow diverters and heart valves. A stent is a device with mesh which is placed in stenosed blood vessels to overcome flow constriction. Vascular injury and restenosis are two major drawbacks with stenting treatment. Flow diverter is a mesh structure similar to a stent which is passed across the aneurysm neck to divert blood flow from the aneurysm, allowing it to occlude over time. This technique has proven successful in many challenging aneurysm cases, post treatment hemorrhage is a serious problem reported. Mechanical heart valve is placed into the heart to replace malfunction valve. Structural failure of these valves has been reported in many patients. Numerical simulation of such devices can provide important insights about their failure. Finite element method and computational fluid dynamics are the most popular simulation techniques used for this purpose. Many researchers have studied such simulations on these prosthetic devices. It includes modeling of stent to study its mechanical behavior, modeling of deployment and expansion of flow diverter, simulation of heart valve closure etc. Studies on biological condition simulation such as blood flow simulation in human aorta, multidimensional modeling of carotid artery blood flow etc. are also discussed in brief. Similar simulations needs to be conducted on occlusion devices used for Ventricular Septal Defect, Patent Ductus Arteriosus, Atrial Septal Defect, Patient Foramen Ovale etc. to evaluate their performance and reduce their failure in future. We apply this for the first time to show ballooning of an aneurysm.