Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. Jun 20, 2024; 14(2): 94135
Published online Jun 20, 2024. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v14.i2.94135
Experimental models of high-risk bowel anastomosis in rats: A systematic review
Stamatios Angelopoulos, Angeliki Cheva, Anastasia Tsakona, Maria Karakota, George Koliakos, Chryssa Bekiari, Orestis Ioannidis, Stefanos Bitsianis, Elissavet Anestiadou, Manousos-Georgios Pramateftakis, Georgios Ntampakis
Georgios Ntampakis, Manousos-Georgios Pramateftakis, Elissavet Anestiadou, Stefanos Bitsianis, Orestis Ioannidis, Stamatios Angelopoulos, Fourth Department of Surgery, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 57010, Greece
Chryssa Bekiari, Laboratory of Anatomy and Histology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece
Chryssa Bekiari, Experimental and Research Center, Papageorgiou General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 56403, Greece
George Koliakos, Maria Karakota, Laboratory of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece
Anastasia Tsakona, Angeliki Cheva, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece
Author contributions: Ntampakis G wrote the paper and performed data analysis; Anestiadou E designed the study and performed data analysis; Pramateftakis MG concepted the paper and approved final version to be published; Ioannidis O designed the study and performed data analysis; Bitsianis S and Bekiari C made critical revisions before submission of the paper; Karakota M and Tsakona A performed data collection; Koliakos G, Cheva A and Angelopoulos S approved final version for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Orestis Ioannidis, MD, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Fourth Department of Surgery, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Leoforos Papanikolaou, Exochi, Thessaloniki 57010, Greece. telonakos@hotmail.com
Received: March 12, 2024
Revised: April 23, 2024
Accepted: May 10, 2024
Published online: June 20, 2024
Processing time: 99 Days and 3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Anastomotic leaks remain one of the most dreaded complications in gastrointestinal surgery causing significant morbidity, that negatively affect the patients’ quality of life. Experimental studies play an important role in understanding the pathophysiological background of anastomotic healing and there are still many fields that require further investigation. Knowledge drawn from these studies can lead to interventions or techniques that can reduce the risk of anastomotic leak in patients with high-risk features. Despite the advances in experimental protocols and techniques, designing a high-quality study is still challenging for the investigators as there is a plethora of different models used.

AIM

To review current state of the art for experimental protocols in high-risk anastomosis in rats.

METHODS

This systematic review was performed according to The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. To identify eligible studies, a comprehensive literature search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed (MEDLINE) and Scopus, covering the period from conception until 18 October 2023.

RESULTS

From our search strategy 102 studies were included and were categorized based on the mechanism used to create a high-risk anastomosis. Methods of assessing anastomotic healing were extracted and were individually appraised.

CONCLUSION

Anastomotic healing studies have evolved over the last decades, but the findings are yet to be translated into human studies. There is a need for high-quality, well-designed studies that will help to the better understanding of the pathophysiology of anastomotic healing and the effects of various interventions.

Keywords: High-risk anastomosis; Rats; Experimental models; Bowel; Colon; Anastomotic leak; Colon resection; Inflammatory bowel disease; Intra-abdominal sepsis; Bursting pressure

Core Tip: Anastomotic leakage (AL) is a fatal complication after colorectal surgery, with high morbidity and mortality rates. AL rate is increased under emergency conditions. This review can be used as a tool to standardize and refine future research leading to studies that can be translated to human research regarding bowel anastomoses under complicated conditions.