Alexander Daniel Löwen

Combining material and structural elasticity - An approach to enhanced compliance of small-calibre vascular grafts

Up to date, commercially available vascular grafts for the replacement of diseased small calibre artery segments (d ≤ 6 mm) show low patency rates. One of the commonly named causes in literature is a low radial elasticity of the vascular graft, compared to that of the native vessel. At the Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University, a new approach combining elastic and non-elastic yarns in the warp knitting process is used for the production of vascular grafts. This unique combination of materialand structural elasticity is used to better model the compliance of native vessels and thus increase the patency rates of synthetic vascular grafts.The first section in your paper