Textile Teflon arterial prostheses: how successful are they?

: Today the woven and knitted Teflon vascular prostheses developed over 25 years ago by Edwards are of only minor clinical interest. The literature contains a chronology of postoperative complications critical of textile Teflon as a prosthetic material, and this led to its discontinuance as a commercial product. Recent evidence from pathologic and material analyses of three grafts removed from patients after implantation for 11, 19 and 19 years, respectively, suggests that the previously reported complications were more likely to have been related to the use of silk sutures, the fraying and ravelling of the woven and weft-knitted constructions and local or systemic reactions than to degradation of the Teflon. Experimental studies of grafts implanted in the thoracic and abdominal aortas of dogs for periods of up to 6 months support these findings. Because of the apparent long-term stability of textile Teflon as an implantable material, the authors see merit in its reintroduction as a warp-knitted vascular prosthesis.