Popliteal artery aneurysms are the most frequently encountered peripheral aneurysms. Although endovascular treatment is recommended specially in high-risk patients to treat aneurysms, its outcomes could be impaired by the hostile biomechanical conditions due to the hip/joint kinematics, inducing mechanical failure of the implanted device which can lead to limb amputation, strongly affecting the quality of patient life.
In the work accepted for publication by the Journal of Endovascular Therapy we have measured the in-vivo behavior of the femoro-popliteal arterial segment during limb flexion in patients undergoing endovascular treatment of popliteal aneurysms. Our results demonstrate that limb flexion results in arterial foreshortening and increases mean curvature and tortuosity both within and outside of the repaired arterial segment.
The study comes from an open collaboration between the CompMech Group (Ing. Alice Finotello, Dr. Michele Conti , Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio), the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Unit of Ospedale Policlinico San Martino of Genoa (Dr. Giovanni Spinella, Dr. Bianca Pane, Prof. Domenico Palombo) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (Dr. Alexey Kamenskiy).
March 25th, 2019