[Healing process of colonic anastomosis after contamination with Staphylococcus aureus (author's transl)]

In 30 rats the healing process of colonic anastomosis contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus was studied. At the same time on each animals a single- and double-layer anastomosis was performed. All sutures were infected during the surgical procedure with highly infectious S. aureus. The rats were sacrificed after 1, 2, 3, 4 days, and 2 1/2 weeks. Criteria for estimation were mainly visible abscess formations, leakage spots, bacteriologic and histologic examinations. After apparent inflammatory reactions were seen on the first postoperative days with a maximum on the 4th day, all sutures were completely healed and free of S. aureus after 2 1/2 weeks. As for the extent of infectious inflammation, the single-layer suture technique proved to be more resistant than the double layer.