The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 22, 239-244, Copyright © 1976 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Use of the doubly tapered graft for the creation of a systemic- pulmonary arterial shunt
NS Braunwald and AR Castaneda
It is now possible to construct vascular grafts of expanded
polytetrafluoroethylene having complex configurations. In this series of
experiments a double tapered graft was used to create a bypass shunt
between the aorta and the pulmonary artery in rhesus monkeys and between
the aorta and the iliac artery in dogs. When the synthetic material was
placed under a slight degree of tension, a high degree of patency was
achieved in animals killed three to six months following implantation. The
use of this approach in neonates with cyanotic congenital heart disease
necessitating the creation of systemic- pulmonary artery shunts is
suggested as a new method to achieve a controlled lumen size and an
increased patency rate, while simultaneously decreasing the incidence of
congestive heart failure or of late stricture of the pulmonary artery.
