AUTHOR=Cutiongco Marie F. A. , Kukumberg Marek , Peneyra Jonnathan L. , Yeo Matthew S. , Yao Jia Y. , Rufaihah Abdul Jalil , Le Visage Catherine , Ho Jackie Pei , Yim Evelyn K. F. TITLE=Submillimeter Diameter Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Vascular Graft Patency in Rabbit Model JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology VOLUME=4 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2016.00044 DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2016.00044 ISSN=2296-4185 ABSTRACT=
Microvascular surgery is becoming a prevalent surgical practice. Replantation, hand reconstruction, orthopedic, and free tissue transfer procedures all rely on microvascular surgery for the repair of venous and arterial defects at the millimeter and submillimeter levels. Often, a vascular graft is required for the procedure as a means to bridge the gap between native arteries. While autologous vessels are desired for their bioactivity and non-thrombogenicity, the tedious harvest process, lack of availability, and caliber or mechanical mismatch contribute to graft failure. Thus, there is a need for an off-the-shelf artificial vascular graft that has low thrombogenic properties and mechanical properties matching those of submillimeter vessels. Poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel (PVA) has excellent prospects as a vascular graft due to its bioinertness, low thrombogenicity, high water content, and tunable mechanical properties. Here, we fabricated PVA grafts with submillimeter diameter and mechanical properties that closely approximated those of the rabbit femoral artery.