Simulation of Stent Deployment in Patient-Specific Cerebral Aneurysm Models for Their Hemodynamics Analysis

Cerebral aneurysms are a mayor cause of hemorrhagic stroke which is a highly significant and devastating disease. Currently there is an increased interest in using endovascular devices for flow diversion such as stents, for treating intracranial aneurysms [1]. Several studies have proven that the geometry and position of the stent in its deployed state play a mayor role in the way the blood flow is diverted. The design of flow diverters and the selection of the most appropriate device for a given aneurysm require a computational model to study the changes in the blood flow patterns after stenting. In this paper an innovative methodology for virtual deployment of stents within patient-specific anatomical models is presented. One remarkable property of this technique is the ability to easily interchange different stent designs within the same model in order to perform fast comparative characterizations.