Initial stress and nonlinear material behavior in patient-specific AAA wall stress analysis

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a local dilation in the abdominal aorta of more than 50% of the original diameter and occurs in about 1 of 20 men over 65 years of age [1]. The largest threat for an AAA is rupture. Aortic repair is considered when the risk of rupture exceeds the risk of the surgical procedure. Currently, clinicians use the maximum AAA diameter as rupture risk estimator. A higher sensitivity and specificity was reached by computing the maximum AAA wall stress with finite element analysis, thus incorporating the total AAA geometry [2]