Small-diameter polyurethane vascular graft with high strength and excellent compliance

Abstract

In this study, a polyurethane vascular graft with excellent strength and compliance for clinical application was designed and fabricated by preparing three small-diameter vascular graft layers via the textile techniques of wet spinning and knitting. The polyurethane filament that was fabricated by wet spinning formed the inner layer. The polyurethane tubular fabric was used as the middle layer. The outer layer was prepared by spraying polyurethane solution. The three layers of the polyurethane vascular graft have uniform wall thickness, high strength, excellent compliance, and good puncture resistance compared with clinical poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) vascular graft. Therefore, these layers can have potential clinical applications in the replacement of the conventional artificial vascular graft prepared from PET and ePTFE.

Keywords: Compliance; Polyurethane; Tubular fabric; Vascular graft; Wet spinning.