VASCULAR RECONSTRUCTION USING INTERPOSED SMALL VESSELS

OBJECTIVE: This study presents the relationship between the patency of short-vessel graft bypasses and their diameter/length. METHODS: The a uthors performed interposed graft bypass operations using small vessel s for four patients with moyamoya disease, six patients with cerebral thrombosis, and one patient with aortitis syndrome. The donor artery w as the superficial temporal artery (10 patients) or the occipital arte ry (1 patient), and the recipient artery was the cortical branch of th e middle cerebral artery (8 patients) or the cortical branch of the an terior cerebral artery (3 patients). The interposed graft used between these donor and recipient vessels was the superficial temporal vein ( seven patients), the superficial temporal artery (three patients), or the epigastric artery (one patient). RESULTS: Good patency of the graf t was confirmed for 7 of these 11 patients. Regarding the relationship between the diameter/length and the patency, we found that long-term patency could not be expected when the discriminant function of y = (1 5.39 x diameter) - (0.35 x length) - 14.37 was below zero. CONCLUSION: Short-vessel graft bypass is a practical option for cerebral revascul arization surgery when short large vessels are used.