DILATATION OF AORTOBIFEMORAL KNITTED DACRON GRAFTS AFTER A MEAN IMPLANTATION OF 5 YEARS

Objective. To evaluate the dilatation-rate of a reverse locknitted Dra con graft. Experimental design. Comparative study, a follow-up after 5 years. Setting. Department of Surgery, University Hospital. Patients. During 1987 to 1990, 105 patients underwent elective aorto-bifemoral bypass surgery for aorto-iliac occlusive disease. Nineteen patients re ceived a reverse locknitted Dacron graft. During follow-up in 1993 ten patients were available for evaluation of graft-diameter. For compari son 14 patients who received a warp knitted Dacron graft (12 collagen impregnated and two uncoated) operated during the same time period wer e randomly chosen. Intervention. CT-scan evaluation. Results. A signif icantly lower increase (a mean aortic body dilatation of 6.8%) of the graft-size was found for this reverse locknitted Dacron (p<0.001) comp ared to two warp knitted Dacron grafts (collagen impregnated and uncoa ted knitted Dacron) (31.0% and 37.8% respectively). At the femoral lev el mean dilatation rates of respectively 2.5%; 23.8% and 31.7% were fo und. Mural thrombus was observed in three grafts. No false aneurysms, graft degradation or graft occlusions were observed. Conclusion. It wa s concluded that reverse locknitted Dacron dilates to a minimum, howev er, further studies are needed to evaluate the relation of graft-compo sition/structure and dilatation.