title: Management of infected vascular prostheses. The vascular homograft revisited.
abstract: Treatment of infected aortic femoral grafts is difficult and controversial. We describe the case of a patient who presented for recurrent infections of an aorto-bifemoral prosthesis. An arterial homograft was used to replace the Dacron prosthesis. One year later, the patient is free of symptoms and is doing well. Although early experiences with long-term use of homografts showed late degeneration of the grafts, 2 points should now be raised in favor of homograft use: new techniques of fresh antibiotic storage of homografts appear to have improved durability; and if replacement of a homograft ever becomes necessary, implantation of a Dacron prosthesis could likely be performed in an aseptic environment. While the use of homografts may constitute a reasonable alternative for treating patients with infected vascular grafts, firm conclusions cannot be drawn until we have seen larger series of patients and longer follow-up periods than those few reported to date.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hôpital Broussais, Paris, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Julia
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Jebara
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Desgranges
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dervanian
authors.forename: M de S
authors.initials: Mde S
authors.lastname: Uva
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Acar
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Fabiani