ENDOCOM: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm test bench for in vitro simulation

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a dilatation of the aorta at the abdominal level, whose rupture is a life threatening complication. Recent treatment procedures of AAA consists in endovascular treatment with covered stent grafts. Despite improving design of these devices, this treatment is still associated with close to 25% of failure, due to persisting pressure into the excluded aneurysmal sac. The follow-up becomes thus crucial and demands frequent examinations (CT- scan, IRM) which are not so liable given the complications. In order to evaluate the post-operative period of an AAA treatment, we designed a communicative stent, comprising of an integrated pressure sensor. This paper presents the conception of a communicative sensor, the elaboration of a numerical model, and the development of an experimental testbench reproducing the aortic flux across an AAA and allowing the optimization and validation of the measurement principle.