Abstract
A new poly (ether-urethane) graft incorporated- with knitted polyester fibers (PE-PEUG) has been developed by our group. Although this graft has some advantages such as minimal bleeding from puncture site and durability to repeated puncture, it has become clear that it also shows a high stress at the time of puncturing and passing of the suture needle. To overcome these problems, a modification of the density and the thickness of the polyester fibers been done. The mechanical strength tests revealed that the improved PE-PEUG has enough tensile strength and low stress for the puncture and suture needle passing. The inner and external surface of the graft is coated with gelatin to improve patency rate and to facilitate adhision to the surrounding tissue. It is concluded that the coating of gelatin is effective to facilitate endotherialization at the anastomotic sites, although our observation is too short to draw any definitive conclusion.
