Bursting pressure in anastomotic healing in experimentally induced colitis in rats

Experimental studies on healing of colonic anastomosis have been thoroughly investigated. However, clinical parameters of the healing process of anastomosis in the inflamed colon has not yet been reported.

In the present study, healing of anastomosis in trinitrobenzene-sulfonic acid-induced colitis in rats was assessed by measuring the bursting pressure and bursting wall tension.

On postoperative day 4, bursting pressure and bursting wall tension were significantly lower (P < 0.001) in rats with colitis with or without anastomosis and normal colon with anastomosis, compared with normal colon without anastomosis. On postoperative day 7, bursting pressure and bursting wall tension of normal colon with anastomosis approached that of normal colon without anastomosis. However, bursting pressure and bursting wall tension of rats with colitis with or without anastomosis remained significantly lower (P < 0.001) than the latter. Furthermore, unlike rats without colitis in which perforation occurred mostly at the anastomotic line, the bursting site in colitic rats was predominantly away from the anastomotic line.

These results suggest that in surgery for inflammatory bowel disease, it is the adjoining inflamed bowel wall that is vulnerable to be perforated in response to increasing intraluminal pressure rather than the anastomosis that is braced by the sutures.