Healing process of vascular prostheses seeded with venous tissue fragments.

Rapid neointima formation in fabric vascular prostheses seeded with autologous venous tissue fragments was examined. A piece of peripheral vein was minced into small fragments and stirred into 20 ml of saline. This tissue suspension was sieved through the wall of Dacron prostheses. The prostheses implanted in the descending aortae of dogs showed extremely rapid healing of the neointima. Endothelial cells lined the entire luminal surface within 14 days. There was no difference in the healing process between the area near anastomotic sites and the center.