Propagation of Sepsis in Vascular Grafts

Clinical studies have stated that sepsis tends to remain localized at the point of origin in a patent arterial synthetic graft. We have demonstrated in the pig model that in the acute phase, infection will propagate distally in both thrombotic and patent grafts. The propagation of infection is probably intraluminal. The implication is that total graft excision is necessary for proximal suture-line sepsis in the patent synthetic graft.