Biomechanical simulations and 3D printing for endovascular device testing

Abstract

Endovascular aortic repair is a minimally invasive procedure to treat aortic diseases such as aneurysms and dissections. Thanks to technological advancements, such procedure has steadily shifted from the abdominal aorta towards the ascending part, i.e., near the heart, calling for an extensive and comprehensive benchmarking of (novel) endografts. Given such considerations, we have exploited porcine aorta with a pulse duplicator to analyse the mechanical interaction between the endovascular device and the native tissue. Our results have implications for using the porcine aorta as a model for human aorta in research. Particularly, the combination of in vitro tests performed using ex-vivo tissue, integrated validated patient-specific numerical simulations, mock arteries manufactured by 3D printing, can offer important insight on biomechanical impact of endograft design on post-operative aortic mechanical response.