Abstract
The cervical trachea of mongrel dogs was replaced by a porous tracheal prosthesis, which was constructed with our personally designed Teflon ® support and Marlex ® mesh. The prostheses were divided into two types: in the first type (B-1) the mesh was fixed outside the support, and in the second type (B-2) inside the support. From the study of the polyethylene mesh which was implanted subcutaneously under aseptic conditions, we found that collagen fibers and newly formed vessels were present, if the mesh pore size was larger than 292μ. Thus we used Marlex ® mesh with a pore size of about 300μ. Macro- and micro-scopic examinations of the prosthesis were performed on the fifteen cases of B-1 support dogs and the ten cases of B-2 support dogs which survived more than a period of four weeks after the reconstruction. The incidence of stenosis at the site of the anastomosis increased gradually to 64% after one year, and the incidence of granulation tissue overgrowth on the inner surface of the graft also increased in the B-1 type when compared to the B-2 type graft, but this could not be statistically verified. The complete epithelization of the inner surface of the graft was disclosed in the B-2 type graft after six months, and in the B-1 type graft after eighteen months.
