Objectives: Low patency rates of saphenous vein grafts remain a major predicament in surgical revascularization.\r\nWe examined a novel expandable external support device designed to mitigate causative factors for early and late\r\ngraft failure.\r\nMethods: For this study, fourteen adult sheep underwent cardiac revascularization using two vein grafts for each;\r\none to the LAD and the other to the obtuse marginal artery. One graft was supported with the device while the\r\nother served as a control. Target vessel was alternated between consecutive cases. The animals underwent\r\nimmediate and late angiography and were then sacrificed for histopathologic evaluation.\r\nResults: Of the fourteen animals studied, three died peri-operatively (unrelated to device implanted), and ten\r\nsurvived the follow-up period. Among surviving animals, three grafts were thrombosed and one was occluded, all\r\nin the control group (p = 0.043). Quantitative angiographic evaluation revealed no difference between groups in\r\nimmediate level of graft uniformity, with a coefficient-of-variance (CV%) of 7.39 in control versus 5.07 in the\r\nsupported grafts, p = 0.082. At 12 weeks, there was a significant non-uniformity in the control grafts versus the\r\nsupported grafts (CV = 22.12 versus 3.01, p < 0.002). In histopathologic evaluation, mean intimal area of the\r\nsupported grafts was significantly lower than in the control grafts (11.2 mm^2 versus 23.1 mm^2 p < 0.02).\r\nConclusions: The expandable SVG external support system was found to be efficacious in reducing SVG�s non-uniform\r\ndilatation and neointimal formation in an animal model early after CABG. This novel technology may have the\r\npotential to improve SVG patency rates after surgical myocardial revascularization.
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