Improvement in wound healing in ischaemic limbs by perioperative normovolaemic haemodilution – an animal study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Parker, M.C.^{; *} | Hynd, J.W. | Dormandy, J.A.

Affiliations: St. James’ and St. George’s Hospital, London, England

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to Mr. M.C. Parker of St. George’s Hospital

Note: [] Accepted by: Editor H. Schmid-Schöbein

Abstract: To test the hypothesis that lowering the haemoglobin concentration pre-operatively improves wound healing 52 Wistar rats were randomly allocated into two groups: group ‘A’ were haemodiluted pre-operatively by ten per cent of their blood volume; group ‘B’ were untreated controls. All rats were subject to laparotomy and one leg rendered ischaemic. Two 2 centimetre long full thickness skin incisions were made in each leg and sutured. At seven days the wound strengths were measured by tensometry and quantitative wound collagen content was performed. A second experiment was performed employing 28 rats allocated into two similar groups. In this experiment the study group were repeatedly diluted on alternate post-operative days whereas controls were sham diluted. The experiments were otherwise identical. Compared with controls, haemodilution did not improve wound strength in non-ischaemic limbs but did improve wound strenth in ischaemic limbs in experiment two (p ⩽ 0.001).

Keywords: Haemodilution, ischaemia, wound healing

DOI: 10.3233/CH-1986-6607

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 553-560, 1986