Studies on end-to-end colonic anastomosis in the dog: a comparison of techniques

For end-to-end anastomosis, many techniques suitable for the small intestine end up catastrophically when applied on the colon. An experimental study involving 18 healthy adult dogs was conducted to find a model technique out of the best considered techniques for small intestinal end-to-end anastomosis viz., simple interrupted approximating sutures (group I), double-layer inverting sutures (group II), and Gambee sutures (group III). The results depicted a nonsignificant difference among groups as far as paralytic ileus and omental adhesions are concerned. Similarly, haematologic and physiologic values did not deviate from a normal pattern after any surgical intervention. Barium sulphate radiographs taken at postoperation (PO) day 14 revealed significantly lesser reduction (P < or = 0.001) in lumen diameter (26.14 +/- 1.87%) at the site of anastomosis in group I as compared to 30.16 +/- 1.20% and 38.91 +/- 1.87% reduction in groups III and II, respectively. Similarly, gain in tensile strength was maximum (26.55 +/- 1.33%) in group I and minimum (19.73 +/- 2.62%) in group II on PO day 14. The current study showed superiority of the simple interrupted suture technique for colonic end-to-end anastomosis over the other two techniques studied.