Vein grafting with the telescoping anastomotic technique for venous defects

The telescoping anastomotic technique was used at both ends of autogenous vein grafts bridging a defect in slow-running, vulnerable veins. This was done on left epigastric veins of the rat, the central part of which was used as a graft. In the right epigastric veins, both the proximal and distal anastomoses were repaired using the conventional anastomotic technique. The overall patency rate of the grafts repaired with the telescoping anastomotic technique was 27/29 (93.3%) compared to 17/28 (60.7%) in the conventional group. The telescoping technique was also easier to perform than the conventional method.