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Updated: May 11, 2026
Creation of Abdominal Adhesions in Mice
Published on: August 27, 2016
Local tissue ischemia is not necessary for suture-induced adhesion formation
Taufiek Konrad Rajab1, Christoph Brochhausen, Markus Wallwiener
1Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA, trajab@rics.bwh.harvard.edu.
Background:
We investigated the hypothesis that local tissue ischemia is responsible for suture-induced adhesion formation.
Methods:
A total of 160 interrupted sutures were placed in the parietal peritoneum of 20 Wistar rats. The animals were randomized into an ischemia group, where the sutures were pulled tight and a non-ischemia group, where the sutures were tied as loose loops with air knots to avoid any local ischemia. The midline laparotomy was closed with a running suture. On postoperative day 10, adhesions to the sutures were counted.
Results:
There was no statistically significant difference in the number of adhesions forming to sutures with local ischemia (n = 66/80) versus sutures without local ischemia (n = 69/80).
Conclusion:
We conclude that local tissue ischemia is not necessary for suture-induced adhesion formation and propose an additional mechanical mechanism to explain how suture knots can predispose to adhesiogenesis.
