Glutaraldehyde-tanned microvascular grafts

In this study the efficacy of preserving microvascular heterografts with glutaraldehyde tanning was investigated. These were compared with glutaraldehyde-tanned autografts. Previous studies have found that untreated autograft veins maintain a 95% patency rate, whilst untreated heterograft veins (Group 1) had a 15% patency rate at 4 weeks in this study. Autogenous glutaraldehyde-tanned rabbit carotid arterial grafts (Group 2) and glutaraldehyde-tanned human chorionic veins (Group 3) were interposed in rabbit femoral or carotid arteries. Fifty per cent and 75% patency rates were achieved respectively at 4 weeks. The low patency rate of the autogenous group suggests that the glutaraldehyde tanning technique itself is largely responsible for the low patency of glutaraldehyde-tanned human chorionic veins rather than any immunological response. Therefore if human chorionic veins are to be used as a readily available preserved microvascular graft, further investigation is required to develop another technique which will reduce antigenicity without promoting thrombosis.