Vascular microanastomosis in rat femoral arteries: experimental study comparing non-absorbable and absorbable sutures

Microsurgery is the procedure of choice for vascular anastamoses between 0.5 and 0.8 mm in diameter. The objective of this study was to compare two types of suture materials: non-absorbable, commonly used for vascular anastamoses in microsurgery, vs absorbable, rarely evaluated in this type of surgery. Twenty albino Wistar rats (average weight: 220 g) were operated on under the surgical microscope with an enlargement from X3.2 to X20, to perform a transvers section of both femoral arteries immediately followed by an anastamosis. The interventions were performed under general anaesthesia with an intramuscular injection associating ketamine with chlorpromazine. The animals were randomly placed into two groups of ten. The reported results from macroscopic, histologic, and functional evaluations revealed no significant differences between the two types of sutures. However, local giant-cell inflammatory reaction was more important with the non-absorabable suture. This result should be further explored in studies using absorbable sutures in human microsurgery.