Numerical simulation of blood flow in intracranial aneurysms treated by endovascular Woven EndoBridge technique

Abstract

Over the past few decades, different therapeutic methods for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms have been developed. During recent years, novel standalone intrasaccular Woven EndoBridge (WEB) technique has paved the way for efficient therapy and reduced some deficiencies in prior procedures. Blood hemodynamics plays a crucial role in occurrence and perpetuating of aneurysm; therefore, understanding of relevant parameters can lead to a better treatment and evolution of design. Objectively, this paper has established the first mathematical framework to explore hemodynamic parameters for WEB-treated saccular aneurysms by employing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Two ideal models of artery — one is suffered by a bifurcation aneurysm at Basilar Artery (BA) and another Posterior Cerebral Artery (PCA) aneurysm — are selected. Simulations are performed for an untreated and three WEB-treated aneurysms by Dual Layer (DL), Single Layer (SL) and Single Layer Sphere (SLS) WEBs. Results demonstrate that, generally, the WEB reduces flow intrusion and circulation inside the aneurysm sac, which leads to lowering WSS; however, the infiltrated flow to the WEB causes slight increase in intrasaccular pressure. Moreover, the numerical results show that the WEB DL reduces velocity and WSS, and elevates pressure inside the sac more than the WEBs SL and SLS. Among the explored WEB models (DL, SL and SLS), by assuming thorough binding at the aneurysm neck, the WEB DL demonstrates much efficient performance in flow diversion from the aneurysm, while despite the different structure of WEBs SL and SLS, they perform similarly.