Arterial Grafting with Yard-Goods Nylon Cloth

The pioneer work in the beginning of the century on vascular transplant established some fundamental laws which allowed modern workers to accomplish phenomenal results. Carrel¹ at first believed that latent life was essential in preserved arterial grafts, but he later found that viability was not an essential factor and that the bridging of arterial defects and restoration of mechanical continuity was the only aim of the procedure.* The implanted bridge or graft served as a conduit allowing circulation of blood and was very rapidly covered by layers of living tissue from the host.⁴

Modern surgeons have successfully determined the best methods of collecting, sterilizing, and storing arterial grafts.† However, human sources of homografts are very limited for various reasons: the stringency of necessary conditions for the collection of the grafts; the donors must be young persons, with no infectious disease or malignancy; the collection of vessels must be