Autogenous superficial femoral vein graft in trauma to large - sized arteries in dogs

The long saphenous vein [LSV] is the preferred vascular graft for arterial trauma to small- and medium-sized vessels. However, there may be a mismatching between LSV diameter and that of large-sized injured arteries. In such cases an alternate graft should be used instead. We had tried to evaluate the use of the autogenous superficial femoral vein [SFV] graft in arterial trauma in 11 dogs. In each dog we had excised a 4-cm segment from the femoral artery at one side and replaced it by an equal segment taken from the contralateral SFV after its reversal and irrigation with heparinized saline. Postoperative follow-up was done for one month when patency was confirmed by angiography. There was neither venous insufficiency in the donor limb nor infection in the recipient limb. We could conclude that the early results showed the SFV to be an acceptable and a feasible arterial substitute in vascular trauma to large-sized arteries without significant morbidity or mortality. However, we recommend a longer period of follow-up to detect any possible late complications such as aneurysmal dilatation or neointimal hyperplasia in the vein graft or late chronic venous insufficiency in the donnor limb