Bovine pericardium retail preserved in glutaraldehyde and used as a vascular patch

Fourteen young pigs, six females and eight males, weighting 10.3 - 18.4 kg were used in our study. We implanted three remnants in each pig, two in the abdominal aorta and one was juxtaposed to the peritoneum. The smooth face (SF) and rough face (RF) of each remnant were implanted turned to the vessel inner portion and one remnant was juxtaposed to the peritoneum. The animals were sacrificed in 4.5 - 8 months after surgery (75 - 109 kg). The remnants were assessed for aorta wall, fibroses formation in inner apposition and calcification related to the face turned to the vessel inner portion.The rough face showed a lower dilatation level compared to the face implanted in adjacent aorta. There was no difference between intensity and/or incidence of graft calcification when the superficies were compared. The bovine pericardium preserved in glutaraldehyde did not show alterations in its structure when implanted with different faces turned to the inner portion of vessel.When turned to the inner portion of the vessel, the rough face of the remnant presented a lower dilatation in relation to the adjacent aorta and a better quality of endothelium layer and did not show a difference between intensity and/or incidence of graft calcification.The use of biological tissues such as vascular substitutes dates back to early days of cardiovascular surgery, when an autologous vein was used as an arterial substitute. The use of prostheses and orthoses have become necessary to the development of cardiovascular surgery, since the correction of complex congenital heart disease and valvular heart disease require the use of these materials as vascular substitutes [1]. Carpentier et al [2], with the introduction of glutaraldehyde at low concentration for the preservation of biological tissues, started a new period by introducing the concept of bioprosthesis, which despite being a biological tissue, it loses its antigenicity, does not induce the formation of antibodies and produces the disrupt