Engineers save lives
In collaboration with partners from the industry, scientists at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg are developing new implants for patients with life-threatening vascular diseases.
Engineers and physicians are developing innovative mini-tubes made of wire mesh in cooperation. The spiral-shaped fine-mesh stents (flow diverters) allow blood to bypass intracranial aneurysms, balloon-like outpouchings in blood vessels. The German government is funding the interdisciplinary project " Simulationsgestützte Optimierung von Flow Divertern zur Behandlung intrakranieller Aneurysmen " (SOFINA) with 1.3 million euros.
"An aneurysm can be congenital or acquired during life," said Prof. Daniel Behme, clinical project leader and head of Interventional and Preventive Neuroradiology at Magdeburg University Medical Center. "If an aneurysm bursts in the head, less than 50 percent of patients survive the bleeding without damage. Therefore, it is a logical consequence to close the aneurysm before it ruptures."
Computer scientists at the university develop 3D models of various vascular diseases (Prof. Dr. -Ing. Sylvia Saalfeld). Afterward, colleagues from fluid mechanics, including CDS member Prof. Dr. -Ing. Gabor Janiga, and mechanical engineering (Prof. Dr. Daniel Juhre) simulate virtual stent placement and the changed and optimized blood flow.
to the official press release of the Otto-von-Guericke University