DEVELOPMENT OF A LABORATORY-ANIMAL MODEL OF POSTOPERATIVE SMALL-INTESTINAL ADHESION FORMATION IN THE RABBIT

In order to establish a model of postoperative intestinal adhesions th at would simulate the problem experienced in horses, New Zealand White rabbits were utilized to compare two models of adhesion formation tha t had been successful in the horse, an ischemic strangulating obstruct ion (ISO) model and a serosal scarification model, An untreated contro l group was compared with animals subjected to 1, 2, 3 and 4 h periods of ISO, acid to serosal scarification, At postmortem examination 14 d postoperatively, the number of rabbits in each group with adhesions w as recorded, Serosal scarification was significantly more consistent a t producing adhesions than ISO (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.0022), The 3 h of ISO group was significantly different from the control group; h owever, compared to the serosal scarification group, fewer animals had adhesions and one animal died of complications associated with the ex perimental procedure, Based on these results, serosal scarification wa s selected as the best model. for utilization in further studies of ad hesion prevention.