Effect of orally administered simvastatin on prevention of postoperative adhesion in rats

Formation of adhesions in the abdominal region appearing after abdominal pelvic surgery lead to infertility, chronic pelvic pain, intestinal obstructions, difficulty and morbidity at the following operations, and increased morbidity. The aim of our study is to examine the effectiveness of orally administered simvastatin on preventing the postoperative adhesion.

20 male Wistar Albino rats weighing 230-250 gr were used. The rats were housed for 12 hours day and 12 hours night cycles in cages and were divided into two groups, namely study and control group. Microscopic evaluation of adhesion was assessed under 5 main topics which are the signs of inflammatory response; inflammation, activation, fibroblast activity, vascularity, presence of giant cell. Activation was scored as follows: (0) no activation, (1) while activation was accepted as present the score for other parameters was evaluated between 0 to 3 according to the increased severity. After evaluating all topics separately, the average of all scores has been assessed in both groups.

As a result of the macroscopic evaluation of postoperative intra-abdominal adhesions, the percentage of adhesion in simvastatin applied group was found to be 0.8 ± 0.17. This value was calculated as 0.6 ± 0.2 in the control group. Regarding the severity of adhesion, while in the simvastatin applied group the value was found to be 9.1 ± 4, in the control group it was 6.8 ± 3. The general adhesion score was found to be 7.7 ± 4.2 in simvastatin applied group and 5.1 ± 3.7 in control group.

In this experimental study it was showed that orally administered simvastatin has no significant effect on preventing formation of postoperative adhesions.