AimaSimul: a software tool to plan stent positioning in peripheral arteries and evaluate the associated fatigue fracture risk

Abstract

Vascular stent deployment in peripheral arteries is a medical intervention in which a wire mesh tube is inserted into the artery to provide internal support. However, stents positioned in locations such as the femoral artery are subject to cyclic bending, and are therefore at risk of fatigue fracture. A software tool chain, called AimaSimul, is being implemented to support stent modeling, surgical simulation and risk calculation for surgical planning. In particular, the AimaSimul preoperative planning tool allows clinicians, starting from patient-specific medical images, to interactively assess different stent models and deployment options for the risk of breakage. This paper describes the main functionalities of AimaSimul and, in particular, the stent deployment and deformation.