Experience with the vascular brush

The history and use to date of the vascular brush are briefly outlined. The development of this new instrument was made possible by fibre-optic vascular endoscopy, but its use and capabilities are apparently not yet widely known. We regard the brush as the common sense solution for producing smooth bores after various peripheral vascular procedures such as endarterectomy and late arterial and venous thrombo-embolectomy operations. As a reamer and a smoothing instrument it exerts a powerful yet safe and self-limiting action, due to the compliant, impaling effect of the bristles at low intra-luminal pressure. Broadly speaking, the use of the brush is indicated when the smooth Fogarty balloon catheter is no longer capable of removing resistant residual tissue. The use of this instrument on a wider scale, eventually in disposable form, would seem to offer considerable promise in peripheral vascular surgery.