Infected grafts

Replacement options

An infected graft represents still a problem in vascular surgery. Which options do we have, if there is no off-the-shelve device as a silvergraft oder xenograft availible?

One possibility is to build your own graft out of a classic xenogen vascular patch. The technique is quite easy: you take your patch and warp it around a long instrument ( tunneler, syringe, ….). Then you close the long side of the patch with a classic suture. You can add some additional knots on your way along…

Another possibility is to take an occluded artery (due to calcification) like the SFA. First resect the artery and prepare it for replantation in this way: Perform an endarterectomy similar to the carotid artery eversion. Afterwards you can even think about treating the inside of the artery with a DCB. A few minutes later your selfmade vascular graft is ready for implantation. A simple and fast solution!