Together with the Clinic and Polyclinic for Neuroradiological Diagnostics and Intervention of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), the MONTYPIE project is being worked on at the PKT.

Initial situation

Endovascular treatment methods - treatment methods using catheters - are increasingly becoming the standard in many areas of vascular medicine. With increasing technical development, neuroradiological treatment of diseases in very small, peripheral vessels is also becoming possible. Diseases include arteriovenous malformations (AVM), i.e. pathological connections between arteries and veins, the increasingly important treatment of acute stroke in small distal cerebral arteries by thrombectomy, and chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH), i.e. bleeding between two cerebral membranes. The procedures are technically very demanding and require systematic learning of the technique as well as continuous training. Animal models are mostly used for the education and training of physicians in the treatment of vascular diseases in the small, peripheral vessels.

Objective

The Montypie project aims to develop an animal-free, neurointerventional training and research model for learning, practicing and exploring endovascular treatment in the small, peripheral vessels of the brain (< 2 mm diameter). In collaboration with physicians of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Neuroradiological Diagnostics and Intervention of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), vascular models of the three disease patterns peripheral stroke, arteriovenous malformations and subdural hematomas will be developed and evaluated.

Approach

The basis for achieving the goal is the already existing physical blood circulation training model Hannes 2 with its arterial system with volume flow and pulsation, which is to be further developed for the listed clinical pictures. For the development of small vessel models, intensive investigations on direct and indirect additive manufacturing as well as the analysis of possibilities of known structures (e.g. tubes or sponges) will be performed and prepared for integration into HANNES 2 . In addition, the training model will be extended to include the venous system and models to recreate treatment complications such as ruptures and spasms.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. D. Krause

Co-Investigator: Eve Sobirey, M.Sc.

Funding and Partners

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant number 16LW0301K as part of the program "Alternativmethoden zum Tierversuch". The project startet in April 2023 and will continue until March 2023.

In cooperation with i.a. University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).