Laser-assisted end-to-side anastomosis

The milliwatt CO2 laser was used to anastomose rat carotid arteries in an end-to-side fashion, and this technique was compared to the standard suture technique. Vessels were studied at two to six weeks. All anastomosis were patient and overall, there was a 78.6 percent rate of aneurysm formation in the laser cohort, compared with 7.1 percent with suture (p less than 0.001 Fisher exact). Vessels and aneurysm histology were similar to those previously reported for the end-to-end technique.