Combined Computational and Physical Simulation of the Fontan Graft

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is a congenital heart defect found in newborn infants that is fatal if left untreated. The Fontan procedure is the last of a sequence of three surgical procedures used to treat the condition. To improve the quality of patient outcomes, computational fluid dynamic simulations have been used to optimize the design of the Fontan graft geometry. This project presents a platform for performing in-vitro physical validation of computational results for evaluation of Fontan graft performance. In particular, this physical validation system allows for the quantification of volumetric and hepatic flow distributions to be accurately measured and compared with simulation results. Comparison between the physical and computational results indicate that the physical validation system is accurate for cases with large differences between pulmonary artery resistances