Numerical assessment of the performance of a new multi side-hole catheter design in liver radioembolization.

Numerical fluid-particle dynamics simulations, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), are widely used to study blood flow and microsphere transport in medical treatments like radioembolization (RE), a therapy for unresectable liver tumors. RE involves injecting 90Y-labeled microspheres via a microcatheter into a hepatic artery to irradiate cancer cells. This study uses simulations on three patient-specific hepatic arteries to evaluate microsphere distribution in RE, focusing on two catheter designs: a standard end-hole catheter (EHC) and a novel multi side-hole catheter (SHC). Key parameters include cancer scenario and catheter tip position. Three performance indexes are introduced: the matching deviation index (MDI), targeting deviation index (TDI), and tumor-flow deviation index (TFDI). Results show the SHC outperforms the EHC with better MDI (3.67 vs. 8.36 percent points) and TDI (6.04 vs. 10.24 percent points) values, suggesting the SHC's cross-flow effect improves microsphere dispersion and alignment with flow split. The TDI values for SHC often match the TFDI, making the latter a potential performance predictor. The SHC demonstrates superior performance when tumors are located downstream from the catheter tip, while for localized tumors, superselective treatment is recommended, minimizing the catheter's impact on therapy.