Bacterial adherence to synthetic vascular prostheses and influence of human plasma. An in vitro study.

The in vitro adherence of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli to five commercially available prosthetic vascular graft materials was compared. The influence of precoating the segments with human plasma for 2 h was also studied. S35-methionine was used to radiolabel bacteria. The segments were exposed to bacterial suspensions of approximately 10(7) CFU/ml at 37 degrees C for 0.5-18h. Following repeated washing in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), radioactivity associated with the segments was measured. The adherence of the three clinically relevant bacterial species was higher to untreated Dacron than to gelatin or collagen impregnated/coated Dacron or to PTFE. Furthermore, precoating of grafts with human plasma reduced bacterial adherence to woven Dacron, had a little effect on gelatin coated Dacron, but increased the adherence to collagen treated Dacron and, in particular, to PTFE.