Tailor-Made and Biodegradable Vascular Scaffolds - Microsurgery: Advances, Simulations, and Applications - page 267

8.3 Fabrication of Carotid Artery Scaffold

Figures 8.2(a-c) show the fabrication process of patient-speciic
scaffolds. The 3D coniguration of the carotid artery (Fig. 8.2(a))
was developed using a method described previously [17]. First, the
cervical portion was scanned by radiographic X-ray equipment (64-
row CT scanner, helical scan) and the image slices obtained were
saved in a personal computer (PC). Each slice image was laminated
to create a 3D CAD image of the carotid artery. This 3D image was
materialized by rapid prototyping at 13 μ m of laminating pitch [15].
To coat the PLCL membrane as uniformly as possible, dip coating of
polymer solution onto the 3D model of the blood vessel was repeated
three times in one direction and three times in the opposite direction
by setting the model upside down (Fig. 8.2(b)). Each coating was
followed by drying at room temperature for 2 minutes. The PLCL-
coated models then were soaked in deionized (DI) water followed by
dissolution of the NaCl microparticles. After the NaCl microparticles
were completely removed from the PLCL, the salt-leached PLCL
scaffold was dried for 24 hours at room temperature (Fig. 8.2(c)).
A digital salinometer (Sekisui Chemical, Ltd., Japan) was used to
measure the salt concentration.

3D Model

PLCL NaCl

Pore

a) b) c)

Figure 8.2 General fabrication process of patient-speciic, porous and
biodegradable scaffold.

Figure 8.3(a) shows the 3D CAD image of a reconstructed carotid
artery. From these data, a porous biodegradable scaffold made