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A Biodegradable Vascular Coupling Device for End-to-End Anastomosis

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Abstract

When performing microsurgeries, the procedure of vascular anastomosis is frequently performed. When executing this procedure, the most widely used method is hand suturing the vessels back together. This process, however, is extremely time consuming (depending on the size and location of the vessel and the experience of the surgeon) and is subject to human error. The vascular coupling device and its accompanying installation tools in this work have been designed and tested to reduce human error and significantly decrease the amount of time required to perform the anastomosis. Tests that were performed on a revised biodegradable vascular coupling device include the time required to complete the anastomosis, a pressure leak test (both open-end and sealed-end), and a tensile test. The coupler was also installed on the carotid arteries of 2 living and 2 cadaver swine. The coupling device was installed in an average of 7 min and 34 s (n = 3), had significantly less leakage than hand sutured anastomoses, and was able to withstand an average tensile force of 8.65 ± 2.55 N (n = 5) before failure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Yuxia He for her help in the animal studies as well as Brody King and Alvin Kwok for their help in the time for anastomosis tests. The authors would also like to acknowledge the use of the College of Engineering Nanofabrication Lab at the University of Utah, and the financial support from NIH grant 1R43HL132767 and the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development Technology Commercialization Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 1495 E 100 S, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Ryan Brewster, Bruce K. Gale, Himanshu J. Sant & Ken Monson

  2. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Utah, 30 N 1900 E, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, USA

    Jill Shea & Jay Agarwal

Authors
  1. Ryan Brewster
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  2. Bruce K. Gale
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  3. Himanshu J. Sant
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  4. Ken Monson
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  5. Jill Shea
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan Brewster.

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Conflict of interest

BKG, HJS, and JA declare a financial interest in Microsurgical Innovations, a company with an intellectual property interest in this technology. This study was approved by the University of Utah IACUC. Animal procedures were conducted at the University of Utah, an AAALAC accredited facility, and followed all national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

Research Involving Human Participants

No human studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Brewster, R., Gale, B.K., Sant, H.J. et al. A Biodegradable Vascular Coupling Device for End-to-End Anastomosis. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 38, 715–723 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-017-0348-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-017-0348-8

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