J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 85(9): 893-897, 1984

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Report on the annual meeting

THE STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF EPTFE (EXPANDED POLYTETRAFLUOROETHYLENE) IN THE FIELD OF SURGERY

The vascular prosthesis was firstly developed by Carrel who established angioanastomosis. Initial attempts were to develop non-porous molded tubes, the inside of which was coated or which were prepared from materials which would prevent obstruction. Afterwards, fabric tubes were developed by Voorhees, which are still in use. Voorhees prepared a vascular prosthesis from Vinyon-N fabric. Vascular prostheses of this kind are porous. Preclotting prior to implantation of these fabric tubes results in the formation of thrombus layer which seals the pores of fabric, thereby preventing further thrombus formation. In addition, blood cells which have the ability to differentiate adhere onto the thrombus layer promoting the development of its organic properties, and eventually leading to the formation of pseudointima or neointima. These porous tubes are still used to reconstruct arteries with a diameter exceeding 10 mm. Fabric tubes have led to the development of clinically useful vascular prostheses. It is impossible, however, to reconstruct smaller arteries or large veins, even by means of fabric tubes. In 1972, we developed an ew vascular prosthesis for small caliber arteries and large veins. This EPTFE vascular prosthesis has been used in about 460,000 patients throughout the world. This new vascular prosthesis which is a porousmolded tube, devised by combining the properties of non-porous molded tube developed by Carrel in 1912 with the porous fabric tube by Voorhees.

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