RESUMEN
Presented herein is the experience with the Russian-made vascular biografts "KemAngioprotez" in 149 patients suffering from atherosclerotic occlusions of the major arteries of the lower extremities and in one female patient with an injury to the superficial femoral artery. A total of 150 reconstructive operations were performed on all segments of the major arterial bed of the lower limbs. The early postoperative period was accompanied by 14 thromboses of the vascular biograft after femoropopliteal reconstruction. It was determined that the likelihood of thrombosis of the vascular biograft depended upon the type of the distal anastomosis, increasing in establishing an "end-to-side" distal anastomosis with the popliteal artery as compared with the "end-to-end" anastomosis technique. No cases of either aneurysmatic deformity, rupture of the vascular graft nor its infection in the early postoperative period were observed. The vascular biograft proved convenient and may therefore be successfully used to replace synthetic vascular grafts and autovenous transplants in reconstruction of the external iliac, femoral and popliteal arteries.