Polyester is the first material used in the manufacture of artificial blood vessels. Like medical sutures, the safety of medical polyester when left in the human body for a long time has been tested. Its biggest problem is that it has poor anticoagulant properties and requires anticoagulation pretreatment.
, a biological coating needs to be applied.
ePTFE is an expanded body of PTFE, commonly known as the king of plastics. It is equivalent to a new product based on PTFE made with a special process. In comparison, ePTFE performs very well in terms of anticoagulant properties and is also very biocompatible in the human body.
It has a very light rejection reaction and is not easily degraded like polyester. It can be used in the human body for a long time without frequent replacement. Compared with polyester, it does not require anticoagulant pretreatment and does not require biological coating. These conveniences make it
It is widely praised clinically.
Is the star material of the new generation of artificial blood vessels really without any shortcomings? There is no safe and perfect thing in the world. It is impossible for medical devices to be as long as the tissues and organs of the human body.
The shortcomings of ePTFE have been summarized in international research papers. They are always inferior to the elasticity of the human body's own blood vessels. The softness is somewhat lower than that of the human body. This causes the blood to flow in it for a long time, and it is easier to form at the anastomosis over time.
Thrombus causes blockage.
Such equipment and materials are a great test of the surgeon's technical level.
If a surgeon is highly skilled, he may be able to help the patient handle the artificial blood vessel anastomosis better. The probability of blockage is low, and even if it does occur, it will delay the time. If the surgeon's skills are average, the consequences will go without saying.
Can all surgeons be required to be highly skilled?
Impossible. The supply and demand for particularly excellent surgeons have always been out of balance.
Just like inventing a smartphone, it must have a fool-proof operation method that most people can use immediately. If it is made into complicated operations that only coders can use, it will become something that is not for the public.
It can't be sold even if it's sold.
When it comes to the medical materials market, it becomes: the medical surgical materials created must meet the technical level of most surgeons, not the technical level of experts.
If we simply use the technical level of experts to make medical equipment, it is destined to fail to be promoted, and it will not even pass the clinical trial, because the clinical trial results will be terrible. For example, the clinical trial indicator of this artificial blood vessel has a
, called the long-term vascular patency rate. The surgery performed by Daniel may allow this material to perform well in this indicator, reaching 80 or 90% after half a year. Surgeons with average technical skills can only achieve 4%.
Fifty failed.
The test results must be based on surgeons with average technical skills. Seeing this clinical trial value, all clinicians and researchers will become confused.
To sum up, ePTFE has its own shortcomings, but since it has been recognized internationally in the production of artificial blood vessels. Again, the proportion of defects should be controlled within a controllable range and should not exceed it.
Then it becomes a matter of choosing one of the two. Either this material is not good? Or there is an indescribable contradiction between this surgical technology and the new product?
The teachers at the conference table had solemn expressions and asked each other. First, make sure whether these problematic cases are widespread in various hospitals.