[Allografts in the vascular surgery]

The use of allografts represents one of the therapeutic options in the treatment of vascular prosthetic infection. Close cooperation with a transplant center is unconditional for successful graft harvest and storage. Although the transplantation programme in the Czech Republic is handled in several centers across the country the use of vascular allografts is still exceptional. During multiorgan harvest procedures arterial or venous grafts have been removed and stored in antibiotic solution at 4 degrees C till implantation. Cardioplegic and short-term organ preserving solution Custodiol was used in our cohort. At the Department of Vascular Surgery of the Na Homolce Hospital in Prague fresh arterial allografts were used in 14 patients in the years 2001-2004. In all, absence of usable autologous graft was the common denominator. In ten cases previous synthetic vascular grafts were infected. Of these, critical limb ischaemia and imminent amputation due to the poor outflow tract occurred in three patients. Once, false femoral artery aneurysm infected with methicilin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) led to several hemorrhagic episodes. There was no early mortality but one early occlusion with subsequent major amputation. In 11 patients (79%) the procedure was uneventful at the short-term follow-up. All patients were treated with cyclosporine.