A technique to study splanchnic metabolism in the unrestrained conscious pig

In recent years similarities recognized between porcine and human anatomy and physiology have made the pig an experimental animal of considerable value in biomedical research. We developed a pig model for unrestrained repeated sampling of portal and arterial blood, and selectively of small and large bowel veins. Catheters were inserted, under halothane anesthesia, in ten female crossbred (Yorkshire x Dutch Landrace) piglets (8 weeks; 20 +/- 2 kg). After recovery for at least 3 days the catheters were used for sampling of blood. Aortic and portal catheters patency rates were 60% at day 24. For the small bowel catheters, a patency rate of 30% was seen at day 24. The large bowel patency rate was 30% at day 10. These results are promising because they allow long-term metabolic splanchnic research in unrestrained piglets.