An experimental study of end-to-side microvascular anastomosis.

Forty-nine end-to-side arterial anastomoses were carried out in dogs. The saphenous artery was anastomosed to the femoral artery. Variations in technique were made regarding the shape of the aperture in the large artery and in the incident angle of the small artery. Blood flow was measured in the immediate postoperative period with electromagnetic flowmeters on the saphenous and femoral arteries. There was no significant difference in flow between each of the four types of anastomoses studied. In each of the flow was slightly, but not significantly, higher than the preoperative level.