CHEMICAL STERILIZATION OF ARTERIAL HOMOGRAFTS

THE USEFULNESS of homografts for bridging arterial defects has been demonstrated in laboratory animals and after operations in humans.* In general, these grafts are functional after weeks or even months of storage if they have been removed aseptically and have been preserved in suitable solutions at low temperature. Naturally, there is no problem in obtaining adequate homograft material for animal experimentation, but it has been difficult to obtain sterile arterial segments from human cases. It would be advantageous if specimens removed at routine autopsies (and consequently unsterile) could be rendered sterile by a chemical process which would not denature the tissue in such a way as to compromise the results of grafting.

The common antibiotics and the sulfonamides are usually added to the solutions in which the grafts are preserved. However, these drugs do not always sterilize grossly contaminated specimens, and there also remains the remote possibility of virus, yeast,