脳血管外科領域に適した人工血管の開発—構造の設計と物理的特性の改善

Improvement in the Mechanical Properties of Artificial Blood Vessel Suitable for the Extracranial Cerebral Artery

I．はじめに

　閉塞性脳血管障害，特に頭蓋外病変に対する血行再建術はこれまでいろいろと報告されてきたが，主に自家静脈片移植が用いられ人工血管を用いた報告は比較的少ない^1,3,8），この原因の一つとして，既存の人工血管が硬すぎて脳血行再建術には不向きであることが挙げられる．

　今回われわれは，頸動脈，椎骨動脈等の頭蓋外脳血管に応用可能な軟らかさを持つ人工血管を開発するために，その物理的特性と構造上の設計につき検討を加えたので以下に報告する．

Abstract

Saphenous vein interposition grafts have been com-monly used for the reconstruction of occlusive lesions in the extracranial cerebral vessels, such as carotid or vertebral arteries. In constrast, cerebral revasculariza-tion using an artificial blood vessel has not been so common. This is due to the fact that conventional artifi-cial blood vessels have been too firm or too rigid for use in the neurosurgery. Another reason is that the long term patency rate of small-calibered artificial blood vessels has usually been inferior to that found in autologous vein grafts.