Surgical model of volume overload-induced ventricular myocardial hypertrophy (VHvo) to study a clinical problem in humans.

Cardiac patients with aortic or mitral valve incompetence often suffer from VHvo and are at higher risk of surgery compared to other patients undergoing heart surgery. Hypertrophied hearts are known to have altered metabolism and function. Therefore, it is imperative to use hearts with similar pathology as found in clinical patients when studying ways to better protect them. We herein report a model of VHvo developed in our laboratory. Pigs (n = 10) weighing 21 kg were anesthetized, intubated, and mechanically ventilated in dorsal recumbency. Bilateral femoral arterio-venous side-to-side anastomoses were created at least twice the diameter of the vessels. Patency was confirmed and the animals grew to maturity with this pathology, at which time they were sacrificed. Severe hypertrophy was documented with significantly greater heart weight to body weight ratio, LV free wall thickness, and septum. This surgical model of VHvo is associated with minimal complications and no pericardial adhesions. This allows for accurate metabolic and functional heart studies to be conducted at a later date.