Saphenous Thrombosis

Superficial venous thrombosis, which is also known as superficial thrombophlebitis, refers to thrombus located in the large or small saphenous veins or in superficial varicosities. This condition does not have the same clinical implications as deep venous thrombosis and, when the deep system is not involved, can be treated with only heat and anticoagulation drugs (aspirin). The thrombosis of the superficial venous system is more easily recog-... 

Current vascular grafts of polyethylene terephthalate and polytetrafluoroethylene have very low compliance. Changes in diameter over the cardiac cycle of pressure are less than 1% as compared to 10% to 15% for the natural artery and saphenous vein (25,26). As a result, both mechanical and hemodynamic stresses occur at the junction of the graft to the host artery. These stresses may be a major contributing factor to suture-line disruption and/or thrombosis, especially for synthetic pol3mier prostheses of less than 6 mm ID. 

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