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The Vascular Join: a new sutureless anastomotic device to perform end-to-end anastomosis. Preliminary results in an animal model

Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Centre Hôpitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), 46, rue du Bugnon, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 79 310 1386; fax: +41 21 314 2278.

E-mail address: enrico.ferrari{at}chuv.ch (E. Ferrari).

Standard vascular techniques don't meet new surgeons' needs for the more complex vascular reconstructions, minimal invasive approaches and robotic surgery. Therefore, alternative ways to perform vascular anastomosis are always welcome. We present a new sutureless vascular connector and the first animal study. The Vascular Join consists of two metallic rings fixed to the extremity of two conduits being joined together, connected with a snap-on system. The key element that makes this device different from all other sutureless devices is that there is no foreign material inside the vessel lumen. In 10 adult sheep, both carotid arteries were prepared and severed after heparinisation. Twenty end-to-end vascular anastomoses were performed and controlled with intravascular ultrasound and colour-Doppler. Animals were sacrificed and a histopathological analysis was carried out. All anastomoses were successfully completed without bleedings, stenosis or occlusions. The histological results confirmed the perfect vessel edges apposition and absence of foreign material in the vessel lumen. The intimal layer was intact. Vascular Join can easily perform sutureless end-to-end anastomoses and it can be used either with biological or prosthetic materials. Further animal studies are underway to assess the long-term results. Following the same technical criteria, we are developing an end-to-side anastomotic device.

Key Words: Vascular connector; Sutureless anastomosis; Suture technique