Intestinal flow after anastomotic operations in neonates

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Pediatric Surgery

Background:

• Intestinal content stagnation at anastomotic sites is a critical issue in neonates following surgery.
• Poor passage is frequently observed in jejunal atresia cases despite various developed anastomosis methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the fluid dynamics contributing to content stagnation at neonatal intestinal anastomoses.
• To identify optimal anastomosis strategies from a fluid dynamics perspective.

Main Methods:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study utilizing OpenFOAM for direct numerical simulations.
• Modeling of intestinal flow using peristaltic motion of computational domain boundaries.

Main Results:

• Distal peristaltic motion significantly drives intestinal flow; proximal motion has minimal impact.
• Content passage failure occurs when distal peristaltic motion is inactive.
• Flow rate is influenced by peristaltic motion amplitude and diameter, not anastomosis method.

Conclusions:

• Distal peristaltic activity is essential for preventing stagnation at intestinal anastomoses in neonates.
• Current anastomosis techniques do not influence flow resistance, suggesting focus should be on preserving or enhancing distal peristalsis.