Very small-diameter polyurethane vascular prostheses with rapid endothelialization for coronary artery bypass grafting

The growing, incidence of "redo" coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) calls for the development of satisfactory prosthetic substitutes for the internal mammary artery or the saphenous vein. Porous non-woven tubular fabrics provide one approach to that challenge. Two types of spongy polyurethane-polydimethylsiloxane (Cardiothane 51 TM , Kontron Instruments, Inc.) vascular grafts with an internal diameter (ID) of 1.5 mm were fabricated by a spray, phase-inversion technique.