Long-Term Comparison Of Vein Patch With Direct Suture

Introduction The use of an autogenous vein patch for closure of an arteriotomy in a small artery was suggested in 1959 by Senning10and Crawford.4Subsequently, DeLeon and Spencer suggested a technique of using a vein patch when direct end-to-end anastomosis of small arteries was performed.5The patch graft was used to widen the lumen and prevent annular constriction from a circular suture line. Initial results indicated that higher patency rates might be obtained with the patch graft reconstruction than with conventional end-to-end anastomoses. Long-term data, however, have not been reported. Chatterjee and Warren recently described significant necrosis and fibrosis of venous patch grafts 60 days after insertion and speculated that long-term function was questionable in the presence of such changes.3Similar histologic findings have been described by Hardy.6This study was accordingly designed to compare long-term patency rates of small artery anastomoses constructed either