ABSTRACT
Metallic stents are used for the treatment of Aortic Coarctation (CoA). However, their application in new-borns is limited, mostly due to the patient’s continuous growth, demanding new-debilitating stent expansion surgeries. An alternative could be the use of bioabsorbable stents (BS). The Finite Element Method (FEM) has been widely used in the development of new medical equipment, mostly due to its capacity for design exploration. Nonetheless, the modelling of stents is not trivial, as many and different variables will affect the model’s performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the challenges in finite element simulation of bioabsorbable stents. A new BS model was proposed, modelled, and analysed using the FEM. The analysis showed that, among other parameters, the use of cylindrical-coordinates instead of Cartesian, and radial-displacement instead of pressure as loading input parameters presented the best results in the modelling of BS, which could be used as default parameters for future modelling.
