Pressure-controlled vascular clamp: a novel device for atraumatic vessel occlusion

Morphological vessel injury after clamping has been an important problem in vascular surgery. Although various techniques have been employed to occlude a vessel during a surgical procedure, a complete, atraumatic occlusion method has not yet been developed. In the present study, we describe use of a novel pressure-controlled and balloon-jawed vessel clamp to provide atraumatic vessel occlusion. We compared its traumatic effect on femoral arteries with that resulting from use of a conventional De Bakey vascular clamp in a canine model. During surgical application, our clamp provided complete vessel occlusion with no oozing in distal arteriotomy. On histological examination of the clamped vessel segments, we observed no destruction of the vessel wall, compared to widespread injury of the De Bakey vascular clamp. Despite some difficulties in application, we think this technique could be a promising method for vascular procedures.