Late graft failure of autologous vein grafts for arterial occlusive disease: clinical and experimental studies.

Late graft failure following arterial reconstructive surgery, especially after infrainguinal reconstruction, remains a major concern for vascular surgeons. To more effectively predict the outcome of reconstructed arteries, we herein propose an intraoperative flow waveform analysis which correlates well with the long-term patency rate of grafts. According to this flow waveform analysis, late graft failure was occasionally seen in grafts with type II waveforms when poor distal runoff vessels had been shown by the preoperative arteriogram. Next, to investigate which events occurring in autologous vein grafts under abnormal hemodynamics may contribute to late graft failure, a distal poor-runoff model was made in the canine femoral artery. In this review, we present the results of our investigation on autologous vein grafts using this poor-runoff model. We also relate our recent findings on the function of regenerated endothelium in autologous vein grafts.