Microvascular repair after the sleeve anastomosis. An ultrastructural study in the rat femoral vessels.

A microvascular sleeve anastomosis, inserting one vessel into another, using 3 extraluminal sutures, was performed on rat femoral vessels. In 21 arterial and 21 venous anastomoses the intimal healing and the vascular wall rebuilding were studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The patency rate of the anastomoses was 21/21 in the arteries and 19/21 in the veins. Functional recovery of the endothelium took place within a week.