Evaluation of freezing in arterial microsurgical anastomosis.

In this work, the authors discuss the effect of freezing on vascular anastomosis performed in the femoral arteries of the rat. For this purpose, they utilize dimethyl propane ether (-60 degrees C). Two experiments were performed independently from each other. On the right side, they froze the artery before cutting and anastomosing it. On the left side, the artery was first transected and then frozen before anastomosis was performed. Patency was studied at 7 days. Changes in diameter of the vascular lumen were measured both in the experimental as well in the control group. Permeability of the arteries frozen before being cut was greater than in those in which freezing was performed subsequently. On the other hand, the authors found some cases of thrombosed vessels, which have not been previously described in the literature. They also noticed proximal and distal vasospasm when cool was applied locally. They conclude that freezing of microarteries before cutting them produces vasodilatation with a low incidence of thrombotic phenomena. However, the presence of a significant proximal and distal vasospasm leads them to believe that further studies are necessary before this technique is applied in the clinical setting.