Old prospects in cardiovascular engineering

Abstract

For more than thirty years the thrombogenicity of blood-contacting materials has been deplored. This impotency, combined with inappropriate mechanical properties of these materials, explains the poor patency of medium-sized arterial prostheses and the lack of substitutes for small diameter arteries (∅≤5 mm). The author here recalls several studies, among many others, which have opened opportunities to improve this situation. However there is a gap which has not been jumped over yet between laboratory experiments and the availability of devices which could be clinically tried. This step clearly needs strong investments from the industry people, and the latter should be encouraged to do so by the public health authorities, as far as they believe that innovation is the condition of therapeutic progress as well as social and economic benefits.