A contribution to our understanding of post-implantation cross-section reduction in the vascular prostheses

Using theory of linear elasticity, a theoretical model describing the decrease in the flow section of artificial vascular prostheses in response to blood pressure changes in proposed. The model is based on the presumably different deformation behaviours of the vessel and the prosthesis. An increase in the vascular intima thickness in small-calibre prostheses allows greater deformations of their inner surface, closely resembling those observed in the inner surface of the intimal layer of the normal vessel. Results of an analysis presented in the article show that depending on the material properties of the vascular prosthesis there exists such a critical radius of the prosthesis that smaller calibre prostheses, when used, become occluded.