CAN VARYING FLOW VELOCITY ACROSS AN ARTERIAL ANASTOMOSIS PREVENT THROMBOEMBOLIC INJURY

In this study, simulated ''poor'' repairs applied to transverse incisi ons in the iliac arteries of 40 rats were the basis for comparing the effect of variations in blood flow on thromboembolism. Using vital mic roscopy and digital image processing, we performed 2 experiments. In t he first experiment (n = 20), the reduction of post-repair blood flow by approximately 50% resulted in an 83% reduction in the total number of emboli appearing in the microcirculation of the cremaster muscle di stal to the repair. In the second experiment (n = 20), the same reduct ion in blood flow typically resulted in larger repair-site thrombi whi ch required significantly more time to grow to their maximum size. We conclude that reducing pedicle artery blood flow to approximately half in our rat model during reperfusion can protect the downstream microc irculation from embolic injury without increasing the incidence of thr ombotic occlusion. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.