Blood flow through the fusiform aneurysm treated with the Flow Diverter stent - Numerical investigations

The Flow Diverter is one of the methods used in the treatment of a fusiform aneurysm. While this method is popular in treating anomalies of the cerebral vasculature, it is not commonly used in the treatment of aortic aneurysms. The numerical simulation in a patient-specific model of the abdominal aortal aneurysm allowed us to investigate and visualize the hemodynamics of blood before and after stent implantation. Our custom software (updated version of MeMoS) was used to reproduce the vessel geometry on the basis of imported DICOM image sets. The blood flow was modeled as pulsatile and with non Newtonian rheology. A velocity distribution, vorticity, a region of stagnation and wall shear stress were plotted to give an insight into the mechanism of operation of Flow Diverter stents. Additionally, a quantitative analysis of the blood distribution among chosen abdominal arteries for one full cardiac cycle was performed. A Flow Diverter stent implanted in the fusiform aneurysmal sack involving the abdominal aorta significantly changed the flow pattern in the region of the aneurysm, but it did not contribute to diminished flow to the renal arteries. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The Flow Diverter is a treatment method for fusiform aneurysms, commonly used for cerebral vascular anomalies but not for aortic aneurysms. Numerical simulation in a patient-specific model of abdominal aortic aneurysms allowed investigation and visualization of blood hemodynamics before and after stent implantation. The Flow Diverter stent significantly changed the flow pattern in the aneurysm region but did not affect blood flow to the renal arteries.