Long-term patency of a RaK collagen vascular prosthesis - single centre results during a 10 year follow-up.

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the results of vascular operations based on the RaK prostheses, with a particular attention paid to their long-term patency. The study included 105 patients who were operated on in the period from 1992 to 1996. Vascular surgery was performed in the aortofemoral area and the underlying diagnoses were Leriche syndrome, asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm, iliac artery stenosis or occlusion and symptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm. During the mean follow-up time of 96 months (range 28-144), 8 patients (7.6 %) were lost to follow-up and 23 patients (21.9 %) died. At 12, 36, 60 and 120 months after surgery, the prostheses were patent in 99 %, 98 %, 93 % and 89 % of the patients, respectively. It is concluded that the RaK collagen prosthesis is the device of high quality and parameters comparable with the other types of knitted vascular prostheses currently used (Tab. 3, Fig. 4, Ref. 17).