TENSIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF MESHES USED IN ABDOMINAL VENTRAL WALL DEFECTS IN RATS.

BACKGROUND

Among the various strategies to avoid exaggerated foreign body reaction in the treatment of hernias is the limitation of the amount of polypropylene or the use of absorbable material.

AIM: To evaluate the healing of defects in the abdominal wall of rats, comparing microporous polypropylene, macroporous polypropylene and polypropylene/polyglecaprone at the 30º, 60º and 120º postoperative day.

METHODS

Wistar rats were submitted to defect production in the ventral abdominal wall, with integrity of the parietal peritoneum. Prolene®, Ultrapro® and Bard Soft® meshes were used in the correction of the defect. Nine subgroups of 10 animals were submitted to euthanasia at 30th, 60th and 120th postoperative day. Fragments of the abdominal wall of the animals were submitted to tensiometric analysis.

RESULTS

The tensiometry at the 30th postoperative day showed greater resistance of the tissues with Bard Soft® (macroporous mesh) in relation to the tissues with Prolene® (microporous mesh). On the 60th postoperative day Bard Soft® maintained the superior resistance to the tissues comparing to Prolene Mesh®. On the 120th postoperative day the tissues repaired with Ultrapro® (macroporous mesh) proved to be more resistant than the ones by Prolene® (microporous mesh) and Bard Soft® (macroporous mesh).

CONCLUSION

The tissues repaired with macroporous meshes showed greater resistance than with microporous meshes at all stages, and at 120 days postoperative Ultrapro® performed better than the others.