Blood supply of esophageal stumps

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The purpose of the study was to determine the blood supply of stumps of mobilized esophagus. METHODOLOGY: Esophageal stumps of five groups of rabbits were studied. The esophageal stumps were dyed via intravenous injection of trypan blue, and w ere analyzed by color image processing. RESULTS: The dyed length of the esophageal stump was 7.15+/-0.5cm in the st omach-connecting group; 4.6+/-0.69cm in the stomach-connecting with myotomy group; 6.1+/-0.88cm in the distal stomach-connecting group; 3.0+/-0.47cm i n the neck-connecting group; and, 2.1+/-0.2cm in the neck-connecting with m yotomy group. There was a significant difference in the dyed length between the stomach-connecting and neck-connecting groups (p=0.000), and between t he stomach-connecting and stomach-connecting with myotomy groups (p=0.026), but there was no significant difference between the neck-connecting and ne ck-connecting with myotomy (p=0.094), or the stomach-connecting and distal stomach-connecting groups (p=0.053). CONCLUSIONS: Stumps of the mobilized esophagus in rabbits, with or without myotomy, exhibit differences in dyed length, depending on the diameter, wal l thickness and location of the blood supply in the esophagus.