Biomechanical Issues in Endovascular Device Design

The biomechanical nature of the arterial system and its major disease states provides a series of challenges to treatment strategies. Endovascular device design objectives have mostly centered on short-term challenges, such as deployability and immediate restoration of reliable flow channels. The resulting design features may be at odds with long-term clinical success. In-stent restenosis, endoleaks, and loss of device structural integrity (e.g., strut fractures) are all manifestations of a lack of compatibility between the host vessel biomechanical environment and the implant design. Initial attempts to adapt device designs for increased compatibility, including drug-eluting and bioabsorbable stents, barely begin to explore the ways in which implant design can be modulated in time to minimize risk of failure. Biomechanical modeling has the potential to provide a virtual vascular environment in which new designs can be tested for their implications on long-term tissue reaction. These models will be based on high quality, highly resolved imaging information, as well as mechanobiology experiments from the cellular to the whole tissue level. These models can then be extended to incorporate biodegradation mechanics, facilitating the next generations of devices whose designs (including drug delivery profiles) change with time to enhance healing. The possibility of initiating changes in device design or drug release according to information on vascular healing (through clinical intervention or automated methods) provides the opportunity for truly individualized dynamic device design optimization.