Use of the 3M precise microvascular anastomotic system in grafting 1-mm diameter arteries with polytetrafluoroethylene prostheses: a long-term study.
The 3M Precise Microvascular Anastomotic System has had an experimental long-term testing for the first time in polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) 1-mm diameter arterial grafts. The grafts were placed in the infrarenal aorta of 48 rats. At different time intervals (2 weeks, 16 weeks and 1 year), each section containing a graft and its pair of anastomotic devices was removed and processed for light and scanning electron microscopy, with the aid of a newly-designed device. Eighty-three percent of the mechanically anastomosed grafts were found to be patent. Only 14.8 percent of the grafts harvested at 16 weeks or 1 year showed neo-endothelial lining on the inner surface of the graft. A constant finding of this study was the marked atrophy of the aortic media within the devices, that was progressively evident from 2 weeks to 1 year. A network of capillaries within the graft walls was present at 16 weeks. In one case, a large capillary was found to traverse the graft wall and to reach the luminal surface, suggesting that transmural capillaries may contribute to the formation of neo-intima in 1-mm PTFE grafts.
Microsurgery Centre, Microsearch Foundation of Australia, Sydney.
M
M
Lanzetta
E R
ER
Owen
D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000295:instrumentation; D000818:Animals; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000379:methods; D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors; D014654:Vascular Patency / Q000502:physiology
D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene