Femoral popliteal bypass employing modified human umbilical cord vein: an assessment of early clinical results

Human umbilical cord veins modified by aldehyde tanning were employed for femoral popliteal bypass in twenty-four patients. Several episodes of thrombosis occurred in the four Group 1 patients with only one patient achieving patency on follow-up to seventeen months. However, among the twenty Group 2 patients where th tanning and storage processes were altered, patency was achieved in nineteen cases. This points to the promising potential for the use of this new vascular prosthesis for routine femoral popliteal bypass. Long-term follow-up studies are required to assess further the role of modified umbilical vein grafts for vascular reconstruction.