Microvascular vein-graft patency in the rat model

This study establishes a controlled model, to examine the patency rates of simple, arterial and venous anastomoses, compared to vessel repairs performed with 10-mm, size-matched, interpositional, vein grafts in the rat femoral artery and vein. Patency rates in two control groups, consisting of 68 Sprague-Dawley rats in which simple, femoral-vessel repairs were performed, were compared to three experimental groups, consisting of 94 animals in which the femoral vessels were repaired with interpositional vein grafts. No statistically significant difference was found in the patency rates of arterial (p = 0.487) or venous repairs (p = 0.472) in the control groups. Nor was a significant difference found in arterial vein-graft patency (p = 0.560) or venous vein-graft patency (p = 0.862), when compared to the control groups. This study illustrates that, in the controlled laboratory setting, 10-mm, size-matched, interpositional, vein grafts have statistically the same patency rates as simple repairs of the rat femoral artery and vein.