Vascular microanastomosis in rat femoral arteries: experimental study comparing non-absorbable and absorbable sutures.

Microsurgery is the procedure of choice for vascular anastamoses between 0.5 and 0.8 mm in diameter. The objective of this study was to compare two types of suture materials: non-absorbable, commonly used for vascular anastamoses in microsurgery, vs absorbable, rarely evaluated in this type of surgery. Twenty albino Wistar rats (average weight: 220 g) were operated on under the surgical microscope with an enlargement from X3.2 to X20, to perform a transvers section of both femoral arteries immediately followed by an anastamosis. The interventions were performed under general anaesthesia with an intramuscular injection associating ketamine with chlorpromazine. The animals were randomly placed into two groups of ten. The reported results from macroscopic, histologic, and functional evaluations revealed no significant differences between the two types of sutures. However, local giant-cell inflammatory reaction was more important with the non-absorabable suture. This result should be further explored in studies using absorbable sutures in human microsurgery.

Torsion of the gallbladder in an adult: a rare case of acute cholecystitis.

Torsion of the gallbladder is a rare condition that is generally due to an abnormal anatomical variation, i.e., the presence of a long mesocyst with loss of fixation of gallbladder to the inferior margin of the liver. The clinical features closely mimic those of acute cholecystitis. In any case, the definitive diagnosis is made during surgery. We report a case of gallbladder torsion in an 80-year-old woman. She underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy with an uneventful postoperative course.