Pressure induced stresses and strains in a simulated femoral artery bypass graft junction

It has been clinically proven that vascular reconstructions tend to restenose within a relatively short period of time. Intimai hyperplasia and smooth muscle proliferation appear to be promoted by the altered intramural stress distributions at the distal anastomosis of the artery-graft junction. This paper examines the pressure induced stresses and strains in a simulated artery and bypass graft junction. Numerical and experimental methods were used to determine both the magnitude and location of the stresses arid strains. A Finite Element package and silicon models were used for the in vitro analysis. Initial numerical analysis involved the modeling of a cylinder with homogenous material properties, followed by the modeling of a homogeneous graft artery junction under static pressures. These experimental results were then used to validate the numerical model.