Affiliations: Department of Clinical Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK | Regional Vascular Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK | Department of Surgery, Albert Schweitzer Ziekenhuis, Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Note: [] Address for correspondence: T.V. How, Department of Clinical Engineering, First Floor Duncan Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GA, UK. Fax: +44 151 706 5803; E‐mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Clinical evidence suggests that the development of myointimal hyperplasia in prosthetic femorodistal bypass grafts may be reduced by the interposition of a cuff of autologous vein between the graft and the recipient artery. Previous experimental work has shown that some of the benefits may be attributed to the geometry of the cuffed anastomosis. Since the distal anastomosis in vivo is often non‐planar we have carried out a preliminary study in a model where the graft is at an angle of 45° to the anterior–posterior plane of the anastomosis. This out‐of‐plane angulation produces highly asymmetric flow patterns in the anastomosis with significant flow separation on the ipsilateral side of the cuff. In the proximal and distal outflow, however, the velocity vectors show significant helical motion with temporal instability in the distal outflow.
Keywords: Miller cuff, haemodynamics, intimal hyperplasia, prosthetic grafts
Journal: Biorheology, vol. 39, no. 3-4, pp. 461-465, 2002
