[Design of experimental models in surgical investigation]

Research in Medicine is essentially based on three knowledge resources: diseased people (natural and primary), cadaveric bodies (Pathology primary resource) and experimental animals, whom constitutes physiopathologic knowledge resource. Experimental advances reached in the last century have determined the change of the concept "experimental animal" to a wider term: "experimental model".

This paper tryes to clarify this concept. To attain this goal, we must define previous considerations in the meaning of the concept "experimental models" and its two key-elements: statistics and design of experiments.