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A Novel Vascular Coupling System for End-to-End Anastomosis

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Abstract

Vascular anastomosis is common during reconstructive surgeries. Traditional hand-suturing techniques are time consuming, subject to human error, and require high technical expertise and complex instruments. Prior attempts to replace hand-suturing technique, including staples, ring-pin devices, cuffing devices, and clips, are either more cumbersome, are unable to maintain a tight seal, or do not work for both arteries and veins. To provide a more efficient and reliable vessel anastomosis, a metal-free vascular coupling system that can be used for both arteries and veins was designed, fabricated and tested. A set of corresponding instruments were developed to facilitate the anastomosis process. Evaluation of the anastomosis by scanning electron microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging, demonstrated that the installation process does not cause damage to the vessel intima and the vascular coupling system is not exposed to the vessel lumen. Mechanical testing results showed that vessels reconnected with the vascular coupling system could withstand 12.7 ± 2.2 N tensile force and have superior leak profiles (0.049 ± 0.015, 0.078 ± 0.016, 0.089 ± 0.008 mL/s at 160, 260, 360 mmHg, respectively) compared to hand sutured vessels (0.310 ± 0.014, 1.123 ± 0.033, 2.092 ± 0.072 mL/s at 160, 260, 360 mmHg, respectively). The anastomotic process was successfully demonstrated on both arteries and veins in cadaver pigs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Patti Larrabee and Hannah Beal for their help in harvesting blood vessels used in the cadaver animal study. The authors also would like to acknowledge the use of the College of Engineering Nanofabrication Lab and the Small Animal Imaging Facility at the University of Utah, and the financial support from the Technology and Venture Commercialization Office at the University of Utah, and the State of Utah Governor’s Office for Economic Development.

Conflict of interest

Huizhong Li, Bruce K. Gale, Himanshu Sant, Jill Shea, E. David Bell and Jay Agarwal declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of Human Studies

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

Statement of Animal Studies

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

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 50 S Central Campus Drive Rm 2110, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Huizhong Li, Bruce K. Gale & Himanshu Sant

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

    Jill Shea & Jay Agarwal

  3. Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    E. David Bell

Authors
  1. Huizhong Li
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  2. Bruce K. Gale
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  3. Himanshu Sant
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  4. Jill Shea
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  5. E. David Bell
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  6. Jay Agarwal
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Correspondence to Huizhong Li.

Additional information

Associate Editor Ajit P. Yoganathan oversaw the review of this article.

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Li, H., Gale, B.K., Sant, H. et al. A Novel Vascular Coupling System for End-to-End Anastomosis. Cardiovasc Eng Tech 6, 294–302 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13239-015-0220-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13239-015-0220-3

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