@article{mccargar12,
  author = {Reid McCargar and Hua Xie and Kirk Price and Scott A. Prahl},
  title = {In vitro mechanical assessments of laser-welded vascular anastomoses using water as the chromophore and dissolvable extruded albumin stents},
  journal = {Lasers in Surgery and Medicine},
  pages = {330-338},
  year = {2012},
  volume = {44},
  abstract = {We present a clinically-relevant method for producing and sterilizing dissolvable albumin stents to provide intralumenal support in vascular anastomosis, and a method for photothermally welding vessels using a 1.9$\,\mu$m diode laser with albumin solder and water as the chromophore. The axial tensile strength and burst pressure of welded vessels were tested in-vitro. Optimized weld parameters yielded tensile strengths of 4.4$\pm$1.2\,N and burst pressures of 400$\pm$180\,mmHg with stay sutures (95\%CL). It was concluded that stay sutures would be necessary in vivo due to degradation of the tensile strength with exposure to moisture. Stent dissolution was monitored with UV absorbance measurements in PBS, which produced similar results when compared to measurements by weight in blood ($P = 0.99$). Sterilization by 25 kGy $\gamma$-irradiation did not cause significant changes ($P > 0.6$) in stent solubility, which was primarily volume and geometry-dependent. Under simulated intravascular flow conditions, 3\,mm stents dissolved completely with 2.7$\pm$1.3\,mL/mg (95\%CL).},
}