Late results of clinical experience with small caliber biological grafts

Small caliber biological grafts that were heparinized and nonheparinized were implanted in 52 patients with arterial obstructive disease and chronic renal failure by either conventional suture anastomosis or laser anastomosis over the last 8 years. There were no operative mortalities. The overall postoperative patency rate was 91% at 1 year, 85% at 3 years, and 82% at 5 years. The heparinized graft anastomosed by laser clearly had the best results with a 100% patency rate at 5 years without pathological anastomotic intimal hyperplasia. Therefore, the heparinized biological graft anastomosed by laser could be the best option for the reconstruction of small vessels although these grafts might be clinically useful for small caliber grafts.