Affiliations: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA | Center for Computational Science, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA | Department of Neurosurgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA | Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Dr. Damir B. Khismatullin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA. Tel.: +1 504 247 1587; Fax: +1 504 862 8779; E-mail: damir@tulane.edu
Abstract: The endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms remains a challenge, especially when the aneurysm is large in size and has irregular, non-spherical geometry. In this paper, we use computational fluid dynamics to simulate blood flow in a vertebro-basilar junction giant aneurysm for the following three cases: (1) an empty aneurysm, (2) an aneurysm filled with platinum coils, and (3) an aneurysm filled with a yield stress fluid material. In the computational model, blood and the coil-filled region are treated as a non-Newtonian fluid and an isotropic porous medium, respectively. The results show that yield stress fluids can be used for aneurysm embolization provided the yield stress value is 20 Pa or higher. Specifically, flow recirculation in the aneurysm and the size of the inflow jet impingement zone on the aneurysm wall are substantially reduced by yield stress fluid treatment. Overall, this study opens up the possibility of using yield stress fluids for effective embolization of large-volume intracranial aneurysms.
