The use of bovine pericardial patch for vascular reconstruction in infected fields for transplant recipients.

Infectious vascular complications affecting transplant recipients may lead to severe morbidity and graft loss. This is a retrospective review of vascular repair with bovine pericardial patch (BPP) in infected fields for immunosuppressed patients. BPP was used as either a patch or an interposition graft. Five cases of arterial reconstruction in infected fields using BPP were performed. There were no complications related to bleeding, thrombosis, or recurrent infection. In our limited experience, the use of BPP as a vascular patch is successful, and it represents an alternative when vascular reconstruction is needed in the context of infected fields.