Stent graft treatment optimization in a computer guided simulation environment

Treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) has seen dramatic improvements over the last years. With improved surgical methods the rate of mortality has been going down to about 20% and less today. One way to treat such an AAA is to implant stent grafts in order to channel the blood at its way through the aneurysm using endovascular methods. In this procedure the surgeon delivers the stent graft via a catheter inside the dilatation in which it unfolds, taking away the pressure from the weakened aortic wall. This method has been proven to work well and patients typically can be released as early as 24 hours after receiving this procedure. However, complications may occur after the treatment, which can include leakages and migration of the stent or even its elemental breakdown. The causes for these problems are not exactly known. In order to get a better understanding of the behavior of the complex mechanical systems simulation is a feasible approach. This requires adequate data gathering for the individual patient, a feasible mathematical and numerical models, and substantial compute performance.