The effect of diameter ratio between vascular subtitute and blood vessel on anastomosis

Abstract

It is necessary to maintain mechanical compatibility between a blood vessel and a vascular substitute to promote encapsulation around the anastomosed part. From this point of view, using linear elastic theory, we had previously performed stress analyses at the part anastomosed by tissue adhesion, in order to propose some methods of preventing stress concentration at this junction. In this study, based on the previous analyses, we have attempted to develop a concept that can be applied under the conditions of operation. That is, the initial diameter of a vascular substitute with high rigidity is chosen larger than that of a blood vessel. This will reduce the stress concentration around the anastomosed part, on average, during expansion of the blood vessel. We analysed the optimum diameter ratio between the vascular substitute and the blood vessel which causes the least stress concentration, on average, during this process, using linear elastic theory. Furthermore, numerical analyses of blood vessel deformation were performed using various nonlinear stress–strain laws. These results were compared to the analytical solution based on linear elastic theory.