Simulation of multi-curve active catheterization for endovascular navigation to complex targets

The recent development of endovascular therapies has been accompanied by increasingly accurate navigation simulations to assist surgeons in decision making processes or to produce training tools. However, they have been focused mostly on targets within the aortic vasculature. In order to reach complex targets such as cerebral arteries by endovascular navigation, an active guidewire made of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) was recently proposed. The active part becomes deformed by the Joule effect and this deformation induces a bending of the guidewire. This setup is particularly suited for facilitating the access to Supra-Aortic Trunks (SATs) and, in our case, especially the left carotid artery. A complete characterization of the endovascular active navigation was conducted. In this framework, a test bench was developed to obtain an order of magnitude of the velocities applied on the guidewire as well as on the passive catheter going along with it in endovascular navigation. A numerical model was developed and validated in the case of navigation in a complex phantom aorta. We succeeded in representing crucial phenomena observed experimentally: snapping, active curvatures, interactions between the tools. In the last part of this study, it was demonstrated that adapting the guidewire design made it possible to hook the left carotid on three complex aortas.