ORIGINAL ARTICLES  THORACIC SECTION 

The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2002 April;43(2):281-6

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Prosthetic reconstruction of the trachea in rabbit

Abdülcemal Isik Ü., Seren E., Kaklikkaya I. *, Bektas D., Imamoglu M., Muhtar H., Civelek S. **

From the Department of Otolaryngology *and Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Karadeniz Technical University, School of Medicine, **State Hospital, Department of Otolaryngology, Rize, Turkey

Background. Various tra­cheal recon­struc­tion tech­niques ­have ­been devel­oped for sten­o­sis. Different ­types of ­grafts, ­flaps and syn­thet­ic mate­ri­als ­have ­been ­used for recon­struc­tion of the ­defect ­when pri­mary anas­tom­o­sis was unsuc­cess­ful or not indi­cat­ed. The men­tioned recon­struc­tion meth­ods ­have lim­it­ed suc­cess. Polytetrafluoro-eth­y­lene (­PTFE) pros­the­sis is a micro­por­ous poly­mer and has ­been ­applied for implan­ta­tion on a ­wide ­range. It is ­also appro­pri­ate for tra­cheal recon­struc­tion.
Methods. In the ­present ­study, seg­men­tal ­defects ­were creat­ed in 12 New Zealand rab­bits. The rab­bits ­were divid­ed ­into 2 sub­groups; the ­first ­group was ­applied an end-to-end anas­tom­o­sis ­whilst the sec­ond a ­PTFE pros­the­sis. After 2 ­months, ­these appli­ca­tions ­were com­pared clin­i­cal­ly, endo­scop­i­cal­ly and his­to­path­o­log­i­cal­ly to ­each oth­er.
Results. Necrosis and extru­sion ­were not ­observed in the rab­bits ­with ­PTFE appli­ca­tions. After 1 ­month, the tra­cheal sten­o­sis was ­found on endo­scop­ic exam­ina­tion in 5 ani­mals in the ­first ­group and 2 ani­mals in the sec­ond ­group. While in long­er ­defects, end-to-end anas­tom­o­sis caus­es tra­cheal ten­sion, ­PTFE appli­ca­tions ­have ­been ­well tol­er­at­ed.
Conclusions. It is con­clud­ed ­that ­PTFE pros­the­sis is a suit­able alter­na­tive meth­od in recon­struc­tion of cir­cum­fe­ren­tial tra­cheal ­defects.