Non-suture organ grafting to the neck vessels in rats

Heterotopic organ transplantations in rats were performed either to abdominal vessels, using a conventional suture technique, or to neck vessels, using a non-suture cuff technique. The non-suture technique was found to be best suited for heart transplantation, but could also be employed for spleen and pancreas. In heart transplantation the non-suture model had the advantages of less preoperative bleeding, shorter operation and ischaemia times and easier monitoring of graft function than with the conventional technique. By combining the two techniques it was possible to transplant more than one vascularized graft to each recipient.