Event
Bioengineering Seminar Series: B. Barry Lieber
Friday, February 20, 2009
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Room 2110, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Bldg.
Professor Elias Balaras
balaras@umd.edu
Endovascular Bypass of Cerebral Aneurysms by Flow Diverters: A Case Study from Concept to Clinical Implementation.
Presented by B. Barry Lieber
Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Miami, Coral Gables
Endovascular coiling has become the preferred method of treatment for most cerebral aneurysms, but it has proven difficult in wide-neck or low dome-to-neck ratio aneurysms. To prevent coil herniation into the parent artery, stents are increasingly being used as support structures to maintain the coils within the aneurysm and to allow more compact coil packing in procedures involving complex aneurysms . It has been proposed, however, that cerebral aneurysms can be successfully treated solely by the placement of a stent across the aneurysm neck. The stent impedes flow transfer between the aneurysm and parent vessel by redirecting the flow into the parent vessel. Thus, as opposed to their function as scaffolds to maintain arterial patency in atherosclerosis treatment, the primary function of stent-like devices in cerebral aneurysm treatment is to act as flow diverters. Flow diverters increase the residence time of blood within the aneurysm, thereby inducing intrasaccular thrombosis and subsequent exclusion of the aneurysm from the circulation. Although flow diverters have been used to treat aneurysms clinically (mostly unruptured aneurysms), their use is still considered to be experimental but recent clinical evidence suggests that a few medical device companies are starting the process of commercializing such devices. The history and methods used in such devices from conception of the idea through clinical proof of concept will be discussed.
