Using nanotechnology in cardiology – Synthetic nanofiber vascular grafts

Using nanotechnology in cardiology – Synthetic nanofiber vascular grafts



The need to develop a new material was expressed by cardiology and cardiac surgery departments, which are constantly faced with a lack of autografts, i.e. grafts using the patient’s own tissue that are the first choice during cardiac surgery. Unfortunately, in a number of cases, as autografts cannot be used, an alternative must be found and blocked vessels are ultimately bypassed with artificial vessels. While this method works well in larger diameter artificial vascular grafts, it presents a problem in vessels less than 6mm in diameter, where artificial grafts threaten the lives of patients because of potential blood clots. This task was very demanding, considering the complicated nature of vascular tissue, which contains several types of cells.