Three-dimensional hemodynamic design optimization of stents for cerebral aneurysms

Flow-diverting stents occlude aneurysms by diverting the blood flow from entering the aneurysm sac. Their effectiveness is determined by the thrombus formation rate, which depends greatly on stent design. The aim of this study was to provide a general framework for efficient stent design using design optimization methods, with a focus on stent hemodynamics as the starting point. Kriging method was used for completing design optimization. Three different cases of idealized stents were considered, and 40-60 samples from each case were evaluated using computational fluid dynamics. Using maximum velocity and vorticity reduction as objective functions, the optimized designs were identified from the samples. A number of optimized stent designs have been found from optimization, which revealed that a combination of high pore density and thin struts is desired. Additionally, distributing struts near the proximal end of aneurysm neck was found to be effective. The success of the methods and framework devised in this study offers a future possibility of incorporating other disciplines to carry out multidisciplinary design optimization.