Influence of the greater saphenous vein graft quality in the early patency of infrainguinal revascularizations Influência da qualidade do enxerto da veia safena magna na patência precoce das revascularizações infrainguinais

Objectives: The authors evaluate the quality of the greater saphenous veins used in lower limb revascularizations at the moment of their implantation, using a semiquantitative histopathological method, relating the vein quality with patient’s sex and age, as well as the influence on early patency rates. Method: A total of 144 veins of 144 patients were studied, 88 male and 56 female, with a mean age of 65.7 years. The vein was stained with hematoxylin-eosin. The degree of intimal hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the longitudinal and circular muscular layers of the media were analyzed. The quality of the vein was classified, by adding the grades of each layer, into good, regular and questionable quality. Results: As to quality, 82 veins (57%) were classified as good, 49 (34%) as regular and 13 (9%) as questionable. In six months, the primary patency of good quality veins was 80.5%, that of regular quality veins was 79.6% and the patency of questionable quality veins was 84.6%. Conclusion: No differences were seen in vein quality, either in the individual evaluation of each layer or in the global evaluation of the three layers, regarding the patient’s sex and age. No difference was observed regarding the patency of the grafts.