Rabbit Surgery Protocol for End-to-End and End-to-Side Vascular Graft Anastomosis

Preclinical testing in animal model is a required stage of vascular device development. Among small animal models, rabbits provide vasculature with relative larger caliber for anastomotic implantation of vascular grafts as preclinical testing before conducting large animal studies. Rabbits have similar hemostatic mechanism with human and can accommodate vascular grafts with various diameters at different locations, and thus provide a valid model to assess small-diameter vascular grafts. This chapter will describe the procedures and materials required to conduct survival surgery in rabbit carotid artery models for implantation of small-diameter tubular grafts with an end-to-side and end-to-end anastomotic technique.