Clinical and pathological assessment of different suture techniques for microvascular anastomosis in rat femoral artery

ABSTRACT

This study examined the clinical and pathologicalfeatures after a microvascular anastomosis of a ratfemoral artery using four different suture techniques.Sixty Sprage-Dawely rats were divided randomly into 4groups. Fifteen bisected arteries (one from each animal) inGroup I, II, III and IV were sutured with the simpleinterrupted suture, continuous suture, sleeve suture andcuff suture, respectively. The anastomosis times in GroupI, II, III and IV were 28.67, 14.67, 15.47 and 15.93 min,respectively. Immediate bleeding that stopped withoutintervention (grade I) was observed in 67%, 73% and60% of the anastomosed vessels in Groups II, III and IV,respectively, while 60% of the vessels in Group I showedlight bleeding that was inhibited by gentile pressure(grade II). All vessels examined appeared to be patent at 5and 15min after the anastomosis. On the 7th daypostoperatively, the vessels of Group I showed the highestpatency rate (93%) compared with Groups II (67%), III(73%) and IV (87%). Moreover, there were morepronounced pathological changes in Group I than in theother groups. These changes included endothelial loss,endothelial proliferation, degeneration and necrosis of thetunica media. Suture materials surrounded by aninflammatory reaction were also observed. In conclusion,the simple interrupted suture is preferable formicrovascular anastomosis due to its highest patency rate.The other techniques investigated can be good alternativesbecause of their short anastomotic time and moderatepathological changes.