Patent Application
20090143793
This invention relates to a connector for surgical anastomoses and refers particularly, though not exclusively, to such a connector for coronary artery anastomoses.
In cardiac surgery, anastomoses for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) were traditionally done with handsewn sutures. During CABG, one end of a graft conduit is sutured to a blood supply such as the aorta, while another end of the conduit is sutured to a target vessel such as a coronary artery. The conduit is typically a saphenous or other vein graft. Hand sewing the saphenous vein graft to the coronary artery is an extremely difficult and time-consuming task due to the smaller diameter of the coronary vessel (typically from 1 to 4 mm) compared with the diameter of the saphenous vein graft which is typically from 5 to 7 mm. Any imprecision when placing sutures between the coronary artery and the graft may lead to occlusion at the anastomosis site, causing severe flow impairment. Suturing also inevitably introduces vascular wall damage, slowing down healing of the anastomosis.
In addition to suturing the graft to the aorta, the graft also has to be sutured to the occluded coronary artery, preferably at a point distal to its occluded segment (distal anastomosis). To perform the surgery, the surgeon thus needs relatively unobstructed access to the anastomosis site within the patient. In less invasive surgical approaches, some of the major coronary arteries are not readily reached by the surgeon. This makes suturing either difficult or impossible for some coronary artery sites.
An additional problem with CABG is formation of thrombi and atherosclerotic lesions at and around the grafted coronary artery, which can result in reoccurrence of myocardial infarction.
There is therefore a need for a simpler way of performing coronary bypass surgery that can minimize dependence of surgical outcome on a surgeon's personal suturing skill. It is also desirable to dispense with suturing altogether. It is further desirable to minimize formation of thrombi and atherosclerotic lesions.
According to a first aspect, there is provided a connector for surgical anastomoses. The connector comprises a sleeve having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet being for fluid connection with a first blood vessel, the inlet being generally co-axial with the first blood vessel, and the outlet being for fluid connection with a second blood vessel, the outlet being generally orthogonal to the second blood vessel.
The connector may comprise smooth and continuous change from the inlet to the outlet. The inlet may be circular. The outlet may be elliptical. The outlet may flare outwardly. The sleeve may have a smooth internal wall. The connector may further comprise a circumferential groove on an outer wall of the sleeve adjacent the inlet for assisting securing the first blood vessel thereto. The connector may further comprise an attachment adjacent the outlet for attaching the connector to the second blood vessel. The attachment may comprise a docking ring. The docking ring may be elliptical. The docking ring may include a mechanical attachment selected from: a plurality of securing clips, claws, spring clips, spring claws, retaining rings, circlips, and split rings.
The mechanical attachment may comprise securing claws resiliency biased towards an open clamping position for securing the docking ring to the second blood vessel. The securing claws may be made of a shape memory material. The shape memory material may be Nitinol. The docking ring may further comprise at least one positioning magnet. The docking ring may be secured to the sleeve by spikes on the docking ring locking with holes on the sleeve.
In order that the present invention may be fully understood and readily put into practical effect, there shall now be described by way of non-limitative example only preferred embodiments of the present invention, the description being with reference to the accompanying illustrative drawings.
In the drawings:
In order to determine the influence of distal anastomotic geometry on formation of atherosclerotic lesion in the graft and coronary artery (due to deleterious blood flow velocity and shear stress distributions), computational fluid dynamics and in-vitro experiments of blood flow in the aorta, graft and the occluded coronary arteries were performed. These have been published extensively in international journals.
Formation of thrombi and atherosclerotic lesions at and around the grafted coronary artery, which can result in reoccurrence of myocardial infarction, was found to be dependent on the geometry of the distal anastomosis, which can cause complex flow velocity and shear stress distributions that are contributory to intimal hyperplasia due to formation of atherosclerotic lesion within the graft and the coronary artery.
To optimise the geometry of the distal anastomosis, as shown in
The connector 10 comprises a sleeve 12 having an inlet 20 and an outlet 22. The vein graft 16 is connected to the inlet 20, preferably by tying the vein graft 16 to the sleeve 12. A circumferential groove 24 on outer wall 25 of the sleeve 12 may be provided adjacent to the inlet 20 to secure the tying and prevent the vein graft 16 from slipping off the sleeve 12. The vein graft may be tied with a suture thread 23 against the groove 24. Compared to suturing, tying is a much quicker and simpler process and avoids the vascular wall damage that arises from suturing. Other mechanical methods and/or apparatus may be used such as, for example, circular clamps, spring clips, elastic bands, and so forth.
A perspective view of the sleeve 12 is given in
The inlet 20 may be circular in shape, with a diameter ranging from 3 to 4 mm, for securing the vein graft 16 thereto. The outlet 22 is preferably elliptical in shape, for accommodating a smooth transition from the greater diameter vein graft 16 to the smaller diameter coronary artery 18. The change from circular at inlet 20 to elliptical at outlet 22 is smooth and continuous with there being no disruption to smoothness of internal wall 27 of the sleeve 12 to avoid thrombosis. The elliptical outlet 22 may have a major axis of about 5 mm and a minor axis of about 1.4 mm. The outlet 22 may also have a rim 30 about 0.6 mm wide and about 0.4 mm thick.
The connector 10 may further comprise an attachment device 30 to attach the sleeve 12 to the coronary artery 18. As shown in
The docking ring 32 also has a mechanical attachment for securely attaching the docking ring 32 to the coronary artery 18. The mechanical attachment may be of any suitable nature of a form including, but not limited to, securing clips, securing claws, spring clips, spring claws, retaining rings, circlips, split rings and so forth. As shown, located on the docking ring 32 are a plurality of securing claws 34. The securing claws 34 are resiliently biased towards an open clamping position for securing the docking ring 32 to the coronary artery 18 as shown in
Alternatively, the securing claws 34 may be directly located on the sleeve rim 29, as shown in
Prior to application, the securing claws 34 are preferably retracted or forced straight for easy insertion into the coronary artery 18. Upon insertion and activation of a release mechanism, the securing claws 34 spring back to their open clamping position, thereby securing the connector 10 to the coronary artery 18, as well as stretching open the incision to allow blood flow from the vein graft 16 through the connector 10 into the coronary artery 18. In this way, suturing is avoided and the disadvantages attendant with suturing are likewise eliminated. There is thus minimal interference to the blood flow with use of the connector 10, thereby reducing the risks of clotting at the anastomosis.
Providing the connector 10 between the vein graft 16 and the coronary artery 18 also improves hemodynamic performance of the anastomosis by improving the fluid flow pattern (and associated flow velocities and shear stresses) between the two blood vessels 16, 18. Also, kinks in the vein graft 16 that may obstruct blood flow in the vein graft 16 are minimized as a result of the sleeve 12 maintaining sufficient stand-off between the vein graft 16 and the coronary artery 18. This stand-off prevents the vein graft 16 from kinking and/or folding back upon itself, which may easily occur if it is directly sutured orthogonally to the coronary artery and the anastomosis site is compressed by surrounding tissue.
Whilst there has been described in the foregoing description preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that many variations or modifications in details of design or construction may be made without departing from the present invention.
