＜正＞ Background External stents have been used to reduce intimal hyperplasia of vein grafts.The aim of the present studywas to define the size of an external stent appropriate for a particular graft by comparing vein grafts with different sizes ofexternal stents.Methods A series of paired trials was performed to compare femoral vein grafts with different sizes of external stents,where 30 modeled canines were equally divided into three groups:6-mm external stent vs non-stent control,4-mm vs6-mm external stent,and 4-mm vs 8-mm external stent.At day 3 after operation,color Doppler flow imaging（CDFI）wasdone to observe blood flow in the lumen.Four weeks later,CDFI was re-checked and the veins were harvested,stainedand measured.Results All grafts were patent without formation of thrombosis.External stents significantly reduced intimal thickness ofthe vein grafts with a 6-mm external stent compared with the vein grafts without external stents（P＜0.05）.The vein graftswith the 4-mm external stent had similar intimal,medial and adventitial thicknesses compared with those with the 6-mmexternal stent and the 8-ram external stent.Conclusions External stents can reduce intimal hyperplasia of vein grafts.Stents of different diameters exert thesimilar effect on prevention of intimal hyperplasia.
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