Percutaneous endovascular graft: experimental evaluation.

An arterial endovascular graft was constructed by wrapping a Dacron cylinder around the Gianturco expandable metallic stent. The device was passed through an 11-F Teflon catheter into the normal abdominal or thoracic aortas of nine dogs. At follow-up of 7-35 weeks, all but one graft remained patent. At necropsy, the grafts were almost completely covered by neo-intimal proliferation. Similar proliferation was observed between the graft and the wall of the vessel.