PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of the sugarcane biopolymer membrane in femoral artery patch angioplasty on dogs. METHODS: Eight dogs were submitted to bilateral femoral artery patch angioplasty with a sugarcane biopolymer membrane patch on one side and e-PTFE patch on the contralateral side. This research was performed at Experimental Surgical Research Laboratory of the Centro de Ciências da Saúde at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. The dogs were submitted to a

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... ew surgery at 180 days after the patch angioplasty in order to harvest the femoral artery. All the animals were evaluated by: clinical examination, measure of femoral artery diameter, arteriogram and Doppler fluxometry. Yet the material harvested was sent to histological study. Each animal served as its own control. RESULTS: In all vessels of both groups there were no cases of infection, aneurysm formation, rupture or pseudoaneurysm formation and thrombosis. In both groups it was observed a chronic inflammatory reaction with lymphocytes, neutrophils and fibrosis in the outer surface of the patches. It was observed fibrosis in the inner surfaces of all the patches. In e-PTFE patches occurred invasion by fibroblasts. CONCLUSION: The sugarcane biopolymer membrane can be used as a patch in femoral artery angioplasty on dogs.