Assessment of tissue blood flow following small artery welding with an intraluminal dissolvable stent

Using the technique of radioactive Cr-51-labeled biological microspheres, t his study evaluated arterial blood flow following small vessel anastomosis by CO, laser welding and a dissolvable stent in the lumen. A total of 30 Sp rague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups. Group A: 11 rats had their femoral arteries ligated on one side. The contralateral side served as a co ntrol, with the artery transected and repaired using conventional microsutu ring. Group B: 19 rats had their femoral arteries transected and repaired u sing CO2 laser welding and an intraluminal dissolvable stent technique. The contralateral side was again used as a control using conventional microsut uring. At 1 hr postoperatively, Cr-51-labeled biological microspheres were injected centripetally into the left common carotid artery and the legs and thighs immediately harvested for measurement of radioactivity. All repaire d arteries were patent (30/30 in the microsuturing group nd 19/19 in the st ented welding group), with no detectable stenosis or dilation at the repair ed site. Statistical analysis showed that tissue radioactivity (cpm/g) in t he ligated group (3,972 +/- 384 in thighs and 3,142 +/- 742 in legs) was si gnificantly lower than in the microsuturing group (7,132 +/- 1,723 in thigh s and 6,557 +/- 1,469 in legs) (P < 0.01). In the ligated group, a signific ant reduction of blood flow was seen in the legs when compared with the thi ghs (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in radioactivity when c omparing the microsuturing control with the stented welding group, in both thighs (7,064 +/- 2,599 and 7,006 +/- 2,406, respectively; P > 0.05) and le gs (6,386 +/- 1,703 and 6,288 +/- 1,757, respectively; P > 0.05). This stud y provided evidence that the dissolvable stent placed intraluminally does n ot impair blood circulation and that when coupled with CO2 laser welding of fers a high-quality alternative to conventional small vessel anastomosis. ( C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.