Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a dilatation of the aorta to a diameter of at least 3cm, most commonly caused by atherosclerosis and smoking. The risk of rupture, embolisation and death increases with the increased diameter of an untreated AAA. Thus procedures like Endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) can be performed which has a lower short term mortality rate versus open surgery, lower levels of trauma and pain to the abdomen and shorter peri-operative stay in hospital. Persistent endoleaks and post-procedural complications are a significant problem occurring in 16-30% of EVAR patients. Patients with the endograft must undergo an annual CT scan for the rest of their lives, placing a significant cost on the health service and difficulty to the patient. A remote surveillance sensor could be used to monitor the AAA sac for growth and leaks post EVAR procedure. In this project there will be a focus on developing a computational model of an AAA for sensor based AAA surveillance simulations. Real CT images of AAA that were considered anatomically eligible for the EVAR procedure will be converted into a software that can create a 3 dimensional CAD model of an AAA. From there we can take that 3D CAD model and use it in a sensor simulation software to create an anatomically accurate computational model of the AAA, which will function as a simulation model for the sensor.
