A comparison of different suture techniques for microvascular anastomosis

Of the various techniques known, simple interrupted sutures remain the gold standard in the microanastomosis of vessels. Tying many knots, however, is time consuming. This may be of more significance with tissue such as the jejunum, which is significantly effected by ischemia time, or when several vessels are to be anastomosed. In this study, 60 femoral arteries of rabbits were divided into three equal groups. The arteries were then divided and repaired using simple interrupted, simple continuous, and continuous locked sutures. Application of the Bonferroni t-test revealed that both groups of arteries repaired using continuous sutures exhibited a statistically significant (p < 0.02) reduction in anastomosis time (50%) compared with interrupted suture techniques. However, there also was a 45% incidence of reduction in flow (9 of 21 anastomoses) when the simple running suture technique was utilized, giving the running locked suture unquestionable superiority.