N-acetylcysteine prevents deleterious effects of ischemia/reperfusion injury on healing of colonic anastomosis in rats.

This study was designed to determine the effects of intraperitoneally or orally administered N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on wound healing following resection and anastomosis of a colon segment with ischemia/reperfusion injury. Forty female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allocated to one of four groups containing 10 rats each: (1) normal resection plus anastomosis; (2) ischemia/reperfusion plus resection plus anastomosis; (3) ischemia/reperfusion plus resection plus anastomosis plus intraperitoneal NAC; (4) ischemia/reperfusion plus resection plus anastomosis plus oral NAC. Group comparison showed that the anastomosis bursting pressure was significantly higher in group 3 than in the other groups. The mean tissue hydroxyproline concentration in the anastomotic tissue was significantly lower in group 2 than in the other groups. The collagen deposition was significantly increased on day 7 in groups 3 and 4 compared to the other groups. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that NAC significantly prevents the effects of reperfusion injury on colonic anastomoses in a rat model.