Purpose: EndoVascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) can be indicated to prevent Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) breaking. However, several complications may occur during and after surgery, such as endoleaks or migration. The aim of this work is to develop and validate an experimental set-up designed to reproduce the comportment of an abdominal aorta with aneurysm. Consequently, this paper presents the proof of concept of the experimental set-up.

Materiel and methods: We have developed an experimental set-up based on a patient-specific aorta phantom with an aneurysm. Physiological conditions that are influent for EVAR (blood flow and mechanical support) are applied. The set-up combines UltraSound (US) and Digital Image Stereo-Correlation (DISC) measurements to evaluate the vascular structure motion due to blood flow and EVAR.

Results: Preliminary results show that our experimental set-up allows measuring local surface deformations on the phantom using DISC as well as motions in the vessel wall thickness using US without surgical material. The measurements from the two techniques are consistent with the applied pressure, realistic and complementary.

Conclusion: The set-up and methods in this paper are validated and our proof of concept is established. Future work will focus on the simultaneous use of the two measurement tools (US and DISC) and the introduction of stent-grafts inside the phantom during pulsed cycles. Such measurements of local deformations and motions will help understanding possible complications of EVAR.