Pretreatment of synthetic vascular grafts with heparin before implantation, a simple technique to reduce the risk of thrombosis

Rabin Gerrah, Rachel E. Sunstrom PA-C, Alan R. Hohimer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Thrombosis of synthetic grafts commonly used in cardiovascular surgery is a major complication. We examined whether pretreatment of the graft with heparin reduces the risk of early thrombosis. A circuit was assembled to compare two pairs of shunts simultaneously in the same animal. The study shunts were pretreated with heparin. After 2 hours of circulation, clot formation was evaluated by image analysis techniques. The pretreated grafts had fewer blood clots adhered to the surface by direct visual inspection. The image analysis showed 5 vs. 39 clots, 0.01% vs. 1.8% clotted area, and 62 vs. 5630 clot pixel area between the treated and non-treated grafts respectively, p < 0.05. Pretreatment of the synthetic graft with heparin prior to implantation reduces the risk of early clot formation. This simple practice might be helpful to prevent initial thrombosis of the graft and later occlusion.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)513-518
Number of pages6
JournalVascular
Volume23
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 29 2015

Keywords

  • Heparin
  • aortopulmonary shunt
  • polytetrafluoroethylene
  • synthetic graft
  • thrombosis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Surgery
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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