Methods, devices, and apparatus for performing a vascular anastomosis

During reconstructive and free tissue transfer surgeries it is often necessary to cut and reattach multiple vessels. The current method of vessel anastomosis is traditional hand suturing. The scope of this venture is to create a commercially available vascular coupling device (VCD) that would allow surgeons to quickly attach vessels together. The VCD is designed to increase reliability and reduce the amount of time spent on connecting two vessels. Hand suturing a vessel is time consuming (20-30 minutes) and difficult (requires a skilled surgeon). The method that has been developed can reduce the amount of time in the operating room by 75% and provides a superior anastomosis. In order to reach this level of improvement a set of installation tools was developed. These tools compliment the VCD and perform the necessary functions to consistently anastomise vessels. These tools were developed using laser machining techniques developed for this project. The laser manufacturing techniques allowed for the rapid development of the VCD and its supporting tools. With further development the VCD will become an important tool for the microsurgical community.