Early failure of Dacron prosthetic grafts.

Crimped knitted Dacron grafts are commonly employed as arterial substitutes and in most instances have proven to be highly effective and relatively durable. Graft failures have occurred and have usually been associated with serious hemorrhage. Fabrication flows, intraoperative damage to the graft, or biodegradation have been suggested as causes of graft failure. In this study three aortic grafts failed, each apparently from a different cause and each presented in a different fashion. Although the exact cause of graft failure in these three cases could not be ascertained it appeared that one was due to a fabrication flow, one due to generalized loss of tensile strength, and the third due to deterioration of only a portion of the fraft. These data suggest that continued search for more suitable plastic prostheses is urgently needed;