Silicone rubber as aortic grafting material.

The introduction of Vinyon-N cloth by Voorhees, Jaretzki, and Blakemore in 1952 opened a new era in vascular grafting. 1 A follow-up study by the same group 2 reported 18 clinical cases of arteriosclerotic aneurysm resection, with replacement by Vinyon-N cloth. The material is easy to suture, strong, readily obtainable, and relatively inexpensive. Grafts fashioned from Vinyon-N cloth maintain a patency comparable with that of aortic homografts. Other plastic cloths, such as Dacron, nylon, and Orlon, 3 have been used recently, with considerable success. Much research is being done at many centers in an effort to determine the best plastic cloth and the most favorable method of application. Despite these enthusiastic reports, there are certain inherent disadvantages of all such plastic cloths being used for vascular grafts at present. None is truly elastic, and the ultimate fate of all is to become incased in a fibrous restraining capsule. Although even