[Experimental study of tensile strength at arterioprosthetic anastomosis]

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the possible role of the suture materials in occurrence of false aneurysms at the suture line. Mature mongrel dogs were used in the experiment. A segment of abdominal aorta was replaced by woven Teflon graft. Braided silk was used as the suture material on one side, and polyglycolic acid suture on the other. The dogs were sacrificed one to 16 weeks after the operation, and the implanted prostheses were excised along with the abdominal aorta. The tensile strengths of the anastomosis on both ends of the graft were calculated. The tensile strength of the braided silk consisted about 8% of the total tensile strength at 16 weeks after surgery. The degree of sliding of the synthetic graft at the anastomotic site and the outer layer of the graft were analyzed at each measurement of tensile strength. In the 1st Department of Surgery, Yokohama City University Hospital 125 arterial synthetic prostheses have been implanted in patients during 1964 to 1982. False aneurysms occurred in 9 cases. The incidence was 19.2% in the cases where silk suture material was used but was 4.0% when synthetic suture material was used. It was concluded that the use of synthetic grafts was preferable, since it conjoined well with the outer layer. Furthermore, the plastic suture material did not degenerate and seemed to prevent the occurrence of false aneurysm.