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Published on: November 13, 2017
A modified rabbit model of tracheal stenosis and a household endoscope. More simplicity and accessibility
Guoying Zhang1, Jianming Wang2, Yiming Zeng3
1PhD, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Respiratory Medicine Center of Fujian Province, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, and Department of Emergency Medicine, Quanzhou First Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China. Substantive scientific and intellectual contributions to the study; conception and design; acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; histopathological examinations; statistics analysis; manuscript preparation and writing; final approval.
Purpose:
To develop a simpler animal model for benign tracheal stenosis and introduce a low-cost household endoscope for postmodeling endotracheal evaluation.
Methods:
Twenty rabbits were randomly divided into a model group (15 rabbits, subjected to transoral nylon brush scraping of the trachea) and a mock group (5 rabbits, merely exempted from scraping), a household endoscope was then introduced for weekly endoscopic examination. Meanwhile, other 15 rabbits (modeling like the model group) underwent batch tracheal resection at different postintervention times for pathological analysis.
Results:
The model group presented a low mortality and few complications. The endoscope could obtain adequate images for stenosis assessment, which showed that the models presented homogeneous injury after scraping and developed a mature scar stricture at 28 days postoperatively with a mean stenosis degree of 65.9%, and 71.4% (10/14) above Myer-Cotton's grade II. The pathological findings were consistent with the clinicopathological process of human. No stenosis was found in mock group.
Conclusion:
The modified model is simpler, minimally invasive and reliable, while the household endoscope is competent for model's follow-up, providing easily accessible and useful tools for facilitating more extensive studies of benign tracheal stenosis.

