Study of patency rate in variable microvascular anastomosis

ABSTRACT

Several microvascular anastomotic techniques have been described with methodical effectiveness, patency rates, healing state of microscopic findings. This experimental study presents the comparison of three types of arterial microvascular anastomotic techniques: end-to-end(ETE) anastomosis, end-in-end(EIE) anastomosis, and continuous technique. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats, 60 femoral arteries were used for this study. Twenty rats per each technique were used and sacrificed at post-operation 1 day, 3 days, a week, 2 weeks for scanning electromicroscopic findings. The patency was monitored by miniDoppler throughout total experimental periods. The anastomotic time on each method was measured to compare the technical effectiveness. The final results were as follows: 1. The anastomotic time for the end-in-end technique was significantly shorter than another techniques. The average time for each technique was measured as 15 minutes on EIE technique, 20 minutes on continuous technique and 25 minutes on ETE technique. 2. The patency rate for the end-in-end technique at 2 weeks also was superior to another techniques. The patency rate for each technique was demonstrated as 90 % on EIE technique, 85 % on ETE technique and 80 % on continuous technique. 3. The scanning electromicroscopic findings on healing condition of vessel endothelium during the observation period showed that the end results of EIE technique, ETE technique and continuous technique in sequence were good. The end-in-end technique proved to be the superior with regard to anastomotic time and patency rate when compared to end-to-end technuqe, so EIE techniqe might be well available for the case of large discrepancy of vessel size. The patency rate, microscopic healing findings in continuous technique were seen as the lowest level among the three anastomotic techniques, therefore the application of continuous technique was recommended only on the inevitable case.