Critical Stenosis and Blood Flow in Experimental Microvascular End-to-Side Arterial Anastomosis

Abstract

End-to-side microvascular anastomosis, which is accepted as a suitable model for extra-intracranial arterial anastomosis was performed on 12 rats. The carotid artery was narrowed progressively with a micrometer, and blood flow was recorded continuously during the experiments. In the anastomosed group, the critical stenosis ratio (the percent narrowing at which the blood flow began to decrease) was found to be 26.5 ± 3.2% and the critical stenosis ratio in the intact common carotid arteries of the control group was found to be 21.3 ± 2.7%. In the theoretical model, the critical stenosis was found to be 16%.