A Simulation of Vessel-Clamp Interaction: Transient Closure Dynamics

Cross-clamping of aorta is routinely performed in cardiac surgery. The objective of this study was to simulate cross-clamping of the aorta to elucidate the perturbation of stresses in the wall (solid mechanics) and lumen of the vessel (fluid mechanics). Models of the aorta and clamp were created in Computer Assisted Design and Finite Element Analysis packages. The vessel wall was considered as a non-linear anisotropic material while the fluid was simulated as Newtonian with pulsatile flow. The clamp was applied to produce total occlusion in approximately 1 s. A cylindrical and rectangular geometry for the clamp were considered. High jet speed and flow reversal were demonstrated during clamping. It was found that the clamp design and vessel wall anisotropy affected both the fluid wall shear stress (WSS) and solid stresses in vessel wall. The maximum wall stresses increased by about 170 and 220% during closure in the cases of plate and cylindrical clamps, respectively. The plate clamp design was superior for reduction of both solid stresses as well as fluid shear stresses. The cylindrical clamp causes much larger stresses than the plate clamp in each of the stress components; e.g., radial compression of -180 vs. -50 kPa. Vibrations, flow and WSS oscillations were detected immediately before total vessel occlusion. The present findings provide valuable insights into the mode of tissue injury during clamping and may also be useful for improving surgical clamp designs.