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.