Improved Small Vessel Prosthesis

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in thewestern world. This may lead to arterial stenosis which may ultimately lead to occlusion. When thisoccurs, the consequences range from gangrene, to stroke or to myocardial infarction. At the moment,autologous saphenous veins are the treatment modality of choice in low blood flow vessels such as thecoronary arteries and infrapopliteal vessels. However, in many cases the saphenous vein is eitherunsuitable or unavailable (due to previous stripping). In such a setting, the need for a compliant vesselprosthesis is vital. We will test in experimental animals a compliant, microporous small vessel prosthesiswhich has shown a low thrombogenic profile as well as a high biocompatibility index in preliminary trials.The compliant small vessel graft (4 mm I.D.) will be fabricated from our patented biostable polyurethanetradenamed ChronoFlex. The graft will be evaluated in vivo by well-accepted techniques. The universalbenefit of this research would be to create a clinically acceptable and hyperplasia-resistant smalldiameter prosthetic vascular graft.