Premium
RETARDATION OF HEALING OF LARGE‐BOWEL ANASTOMOSES BY 5–FLUOROURACIL
Author(s) -
Tom Morris
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1979.tb06506.x
Subject(s) - medicine , anastomosis , fluorouracil , saline , surgery , anesthesia , chemotherapy
Experiments were performed to test the hypothesis that 5‐Fluorouracil (5‐FU) would delay or prevent healing of large‐bowel anastomoses. The caecums of 120 specific‐pathogen‐free rats were transected and reanastomosed at once. Daily intravenous injections of 5‐FU were given to half the rats, the other half being controls and receiving an equal volume of saline. At Days 5, 7 and 10, standard‐sized sections of suture line were pulled apart, and the force required to do this was recorded. At five days the strengths of the anastomoses in the 5‐FU treated animals were only 25% of that of the controls, but by ten days they were over 60% of the strength of the controls. It was concluded that 5‐FU delayed, but did not prevent, healing, and that it would be safe to use it in the early postoperative period, but not until several days after operation