Small-calibre vascular grafting into the rat abdominal aorta with biodegradable prostheses

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Abstract
130 Male Wistar rats, 2-3 months old and weighing 250-350 g were operated on to implant biodegradable small-calibre vascular prostheses (length 10 mm; internal diameter 1-5 mm) in their infrarenal abdominal aorta. The mean operation time was 40 min, the mean aortic cross-clamping time 25 min. The early patency rate was 100% the late patency rate was 97-7%, and the operative mortality was 3-1%. Microscopical examination of the biodegradable prostheses from 1 h up to 1 year after implantation demonstrated reproducable morphological results; in these prostheses a new arterial wall regenerated which had a structure very similar to the normal arterial wall. It was concluded that the rat is an appropriate experimental laboralory animal for testing new types of small-calibre vascular prostheses.