[Establishment of experimental ventricular septal defect in pigs]

This is a study on the method for establishing experimental animal model of ventricular septal defect(VSD) in pigs.

Thoracotomy was performed on 15 young pigs under general anaesthesia. A spool-like ring amounted on a specially designed centesis tool was put into right ventricle via an incision on right auricle which was pushed to puncture through the septum. The ring was then left on the septum to create the artificial VSD. 3 days after the operation, echocardiography was conducted to verify the existence of VSDs. The animals were catheterized one month later to obtain hemodynamic data.

Ten pigs survived the operation with successful acquisition of VSDs. Doppler echocardiography demonstrated the transseptal shunts with peak velocities ranging from 1.7-4.4 m/sec. Cardiac catheterization showed the Qp/Qs of 1.68-2.12 although the pulmonary pressures remained in normal limits.

The authors report their experience in the establishment of experimental VSD model in pigs using revised Synhorst method. The preliminary result shows that the VSD model using pigs is feasible and worth improving further in order to provide a useful animal model for the pathophysiological study of intracardiac left to right shunt in the future.