Late results of arterial grafts preserved in alcohol. Report of successfully treated recurrent abdominal aortic aneurysm perforated into the duodenum seven years after grafting with a homograft preserved in alcohol.

Abstract

Previously, we reported satisfactory results obtained from experimental and clinical studies on the alcohol-preserved arterial homo- and heterograft in this monthly in October 1954. 1-4 However, a case of a man who had a rupture because of deterioration of an alcohol-preserved heterograft (horse) 9 months after its transplantation had been performed, and, furthermore, our experimental studies on the transplantation of the thoracic aorta of dogs revealed that alcohol-preserved homo- and heterografts gave less satisfactory results than did synthetic arterial grafts. 5 Consequently, our efforts have been made on the studies on synthetic arterial grafts which have been routinely used clinically since 1956. 6 Up to the present time, about 60 transplantations with synthetic grafts have been performed with satisfactory results. Recently, aortography was performed on 2 patients who had been clinically well after transplantation of alcohol-preserved homo-and heterografts (sheep) because of abdominal aortic aneurysms which were performed 7 years and