The effects of embolectomy-thrombectomy catheters on vascular architecture

The purpose of this report is to describe the evolution of an embolectomy-thrombectomy catheter (ETC) injury over a six week period. Carotid arteries and jugular veins in six adult dogs were subjected to ETC withdrawals at a standard velocity and balloon size. Vascular segments were excised as early as one hour and as late as six weeks. The specimens were prepared for light, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopic examination. In early specimens, arteries and veins showed endothelial denudation followed by regeneration. In later specimens, the arteries showed progressive disruption of the internal elastic lamina and marked subendothelial proliferation (arteriosclerosis). By the sixth week the artery's intima was equal in thickness to the media. The veins showed only regenerating endothelium without alterations of the subendothelium. Exposure of canine vasculature to ETC procedures caused pronounced transmural damage in the arteries and only endothelial alterations in the veins.