Aneurysm refers to irreversible dilation of the artery, which, if left untreated, can be fatal. Although aneurysms can occur in any artery in the human cardiovascular system, most of them are found in the cerebral arteries, the thoracic and abdominal aorta. Once identified, they are typically treated through minimally invasive endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) surgeries, where a stent-graft is deployed at the aneurysm site using a catheter. Once deployed, this stent-graft relieves the weakened arterial wall from the hemodynamic loads and thus prevents the future of the aneurysmal artery. Some of the most common post-surgical complications associated with EVAR are stent-graft related, including thrombosis due to non-physiologic flow conditions, device migration, endoleaks and, in extreme cases, complete device failure. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations offer a very lucrative pathway to quantitatively assess during the surgical planning phase if such complications can arise for a given patient or not, as elaborated below.

Simulations of Flow Diverters for Cerebral Aneurysms