Physical and biomechanical issues in graft design

New vascular grafts, stents, and stent grafts require designs that use known principles of bioadhesion and biomechanics, minimizing attachment strengths of blood-borne deposits or infecting microorganisms on their lumenal walls while maximizing tissue integration with the host vasculature. Critical surface tension (CST) is an easily measured material characteristic predictive of these outcomes. CST between 20 and 30 mN/m favors easy release and thromboresistance, whereas CST between 30 and 40 mN/m promotes strong bonding.