Classification and comparison of five techniques of end-to-end microarterial anastomoses in rats: a new proposed...

We propose a new classification of five main techniques for microarterial anastomoses: Interrupted, autogenous cuff, continuous, sleeve and partial sleeve. The last method was developed by the authors. A study was performed on 48 albino rats and comprised 20 anastomoses of each type (for a total of 100), performed on femoral and carotid arteries of average size 0.83 mm. These were compared with respect to patency, anastomosis time, leak, bleeding time, number of sutures (bites), microangiography, histopathology and scanning electron microscopy. The overall patency was 88%, and that of the partial sleeve technique was 100%, associated with 30% incidence of aneurysms. Clinical, histopathological and scanning electron microscopy findings showed better results for techniques with predominantly extraluminal sutures (sleeve and partial sleeve), which was particularly relevant in our situation, in which a larger sized needle (150 microns) had to be used. An overall aneurysm incidence of 17% was noted.