CONTROLLED COMPARISON OF INTERCEED AND AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE GRAFT IN THEPREVENTION OF POSTOPERATIVE ADHESIONS IN THE RABBIT UTERINE HORN MODEL

Objective: To evaluate the effects of Interceed TC7 (Johnson and Johns on Medical, New Brunswick, NJ) and gamma-irradiated human amniotic mem brane graft in prevention of postoperative adhesions in the rabbit ute rine horn model. Setting: A conventional animal laboratory. Subjects. Virgin, female New Zealand white rabbits. Interventions. Both uterine horns were subjected to clean transverse cuts 1 cm apart at the antime sentric border. The left uterine horn was left uncovered in each case to act as a control. The right uterine horn was randomly covered with either Interceed TC7 or human amniotic membrane. Outcome measures. Adh esion score was evaluated 4 weeks after the initial surgery. Samples o f each uterine horn were collected for histopathological studies, and subserosal inflammatory score. Results. Interceed resulted in higher a dhesion scores and subserosal inflammation score than the control side (P = 0.03 and 0.05, respectively). A similar difference was found for amniotic membrane when compared with the uncovered control side (P = < 0.01 and 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: Interceed TC7 failed to ha ve the preventive effect on adhesion formation it is claimed to posses s. Amniotic membrane performed poorly too. Therefore, gentle tissue ha ndling, irrigation and good surgical skills remain the most important prerequisite for adhesion prevention.