Rifampicin impregnation of a protein-sealed Dacron graft: an infection-resistant prosthetic vascular graft.

A gelatin-sealed knitted Dacron vascular graft was prepared by passive impregnation with rifampicin and implanted in the common carotid artery of 10 merino sheep. Another 10 merino sheep had an untreated graft inserted. The graft was topically inoculated with 1 mL of 10(8) colony forming units per mL of Staphylococcus aureus before wound closure. The grafts were harvested at 3 weeks and cultured. All untreated grafts and surrounding tissues became infected. One of the 10 grafts treated with rifampicin became infected (P = 0.0002) and 4 sheep with rifampicin-treated grafts had surrounding tissue infection. No bacteria cultured from the rifampicin-treated sheep developed resistance to rifampicin.