ARTERIAL GRAFTING WITH THE TELESCOPING ANASTOMOTIC TECHNIQUE FOR ARTERIAL DEFECTS

An arterial graft was taken from the left femoral artery of the rat an d grafted into the right femoral artery using the telescoping anastomo tic technique at both the proximal and distal anastomoses to compare t he patency rate with that of the vein grafts interposed into the arter ial defect with the same telescoping technique. The time required for each anastomosis was about 10 minutes and all of the 31 grafts remaine d patent without application of xylocaine, yielding a higher patency r ate than the vein grafts interposed in an arterial defect. The telesco ping technique proved to be so dependable that it could be used at lea st twice in an artery. Inserting one vessel stump into another using t he telescoping technique may not itself be responsible for the failure of vein grafts interposed in an arterial defect, but distortion of th e slack venous wall of the graft by high arterial blood pressure is.