artificial blood vessel

Artificial blood vessel (background and medical relevance)

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Your project is to develop a cutting-edge strategy to replace damaged
blood vessels.
The most common causes of blood vessel failure are (1) blockage
resulting from an
embolism (blood clot or other source) or conditions such as
atherosclerosis and (2)
aneurism that arises in weak regions, causing the vessel to balloon
outward and
possibly burst. The artificial blood vessel that you are to develop will
be used to bypass
the blockage or aneurism, restoring normal blood hemodynamics.
Currently, arteries or
veins taken from the patient are used for this purpose, but availability
is limited and they
only remain effective for 5-10 years.

Artificial blood vessel (background and medical relevance)

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Artificial vessels are composed of
polymer or
rubber, but even after significant research effort this strategy has not
become common
place for several reasons. Your job is to engineer an artificial blood
vessel that meets
the following criteria:
1. Can be used in the arterial system, and thus withstand pressures >100
mm Hg
and are elastic
2. Fully engineered – you cannot start with an actual blood vessel (human or
animal)
3. Should be a composite material (i.e. several components) so as to
meet the
needs of real arteries
4. Biocompatible, particularly with blood (coagulation absent or manageable)
5. Last a minimum of 5 years before replacement, but the longer the better
6. Cost is not an obstacle
You just need background information on why someone why
someone would need a graft (how arteries can fail), what’s currently on
used and how they are inserted. So just write a page about medical
relevance on it.