Performance of a thrombectomy device for aspiration of thrombus with various sizes based on a computational fluid dynamic modelling

It is important to thoroughly remove the thrombus within the course of aspiration thrombectomy; otherwise, it may lead to further embolization. The performance of the aspiration thrombectomy device with a generic geometry is studied through the computational approach. In order to model the thrombus aspiration, a real left coronary artery is chosen while thrombi with various sizes are located at the bifurcation area of the coronary artery and, depending on the size of the thrombus, it is stretched toward the side branches. The thrombus occupies the artery resembling the blood current obstruction in the coronary vessel similar to the situation that leads to heart attack. It is concluded that the aspiration ability of the thrombectomy device is not linked to the thrombus size; it is rather linked to the aspiration pressure and thrombus age (organized versus fresh thrombus). However, the aspiration time period correlates to the thrombus size. The minimum applicable aspiration pressure is also investigated in this study.