Boric acid is as effective as hyaluronic acid-based agent in preventing intra-abdominal adhesions in a rat model

In this experimental rat model, we aimed to investigate boric acid's possible protective effect against the formation of post-operative abdominal adhesions through its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Forty healthy male albino rats were randomly and evenly allocated to vehicle, hyaluronic acid-based (HA-b) material, boric acid 50 (BA50), boric acid 100 (BA100), and sham groups. Intra-abdominal adhesions were induced by mechanical cecal abrasion. Macroscopic and pathologic assessments of the adhesions were done and tissue tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) levels were measured.

Total abdominal adhesion scores were 129.7, 91.07, 53.77, 90.07, and 140.5 for the vehicle, HA-b, BA50, BA100, and sham groups, respectively, with the highest score indicating more severe adhesions. A significant difference in fibrosis scores was noted between both BA50 and BA100, and the sham group (p=0.018). When objective parameters were analyzed, TNF-α levels were significantly lower in the BA50 group than the sham, BA100, and vehicle groups (p=0.01, 0.019, and 0.03, respectively). TGF-β1 levels were also significantly lower in BA50 group than the sham, BA100, and the vehicle groups (p=0.013, 0.016, and 0.05, respectively). No difference was observed for any parameter between BA50 group and HA-b group.

Topical boric acid at a dose of 50 mg/kg is found safe and as effective as the hyaluronic acid-based agent in preventing postoperative abdominal adhesions in our rat model.