Modelling pulsatile blood flow through surgically coupled microvascular anastomoses

TL;DR

This paper develops the first mathematical model of pulsatile blood flow through microvascular anastomoses, revealing how device design can reduce thrombosis by minimizing wall deformation gradients.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical model for microvascular anastomosis flow, providing insights into how device design impacts thrombosis risk.

Findings

Thrombosis rates can be reduced by decreasing wall deformation gradients.

Analytical solutions offer new understanding of flow dynamics in microvascular connections.

Model suggests design improvements for surgical coupling devices.

Abstract

The significant rates of post-operative arterial thrombus formation following the sutured anastomosis (surgical connection) of vessels in microvascular reconstruction has kindled the development of engineered solutions such as the UNILINK coupler. These devices reduce thrombosis rates, which recent numerical studies suggest to be due to decreases in shear strain rate across the anastomosis site when compared to sutured vessels. In this work we develop and analytically solve the first mathematical model for the problem of microvascular anastomosis, leading to the discovery that the rates of thrombosis using these surgical coupling devices could be further reduced by decreasing the gradient of the wall deformation at the join.