PATHOGENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF CONTAMINA TED SACCULAR ANEURYSMS IN ANIMAL-EXPERIMENT

Both femoral arteries of 56 Wistar rats were intersected and re-anasto mosed by microsurgical technique. 24 anastomoses were performed under aseptic conditions and 88 were contaminated with a standard suspension of staphylococcus aureus. All the contaminated anastomoses which had remained patent developed true saccular aneurysms that reached their m aximum volume during the acute period of infection between the 10th an d 50th postoperative day. None of the anastomoses performed under asep tic conditions developed an aneurysm. This experiment represents an an imal model for the reproduction of true saccular aneurysms of the arte rial wall. It may help to investigate the etiology of arterial aneurys m formation.