Experimental venous replacement with a temporary arteriovenous fistula.

NUMEROUS studies of grafts in the venous system performed in this1,2and other laboratories over the past six years have resulted in generally unsatisfactory results with prostheses and venous homografts. Autografts have given better results. The graft failure has usually resulted from early intraluminal thrombosis or from late stenosis at the suture line. Since 1960, Moore and associates3and others4-6have reported fairly successful superior vena cava grafting using Teflon prostheses which they have considered to be the most reliable prostheses for this purpose. In one of the more extensive studies, Wada and Ogasawara7demonstrated the limitations of the various prostheses. In this laboratory the results with Teflon have not been sufficiently reliable to permit clinical evaluation. Pilot studies by Bryant et al8in 1958 suggested that an arteriovenous fistula tended to permit venous grafts to remain patent. Recently, using the temporary arteriovenous shunt