Prosthetic Vascular Grafts: Past, Present, and Future

Prosthetic vascular grafts (PVGs) have made a striking progress during the past more than 100 years. Dacron and ePTFE are the two main PVGs. Even now we enter into the endoascular era, both of the PVGs have been widely applied in the vascular surgeries such as the reconstruction of thoracic and abdominal aorta. These PVGs are also now adpoted to reconstruct lower limb diseases or in other extra-anatomy bypass surgeries. But thrombosis and graft infection are the two main PVG associated clinical complications. In the future, more innovation using vascular engineering, biomedical engineering, and stem cell engineering are required and will bring hope to the commercialization of small-caliber vascular grafts and ultimately meet the needs in clinical settings.