Healing of abdominal wall aponeurosis of rats after incision with either cold scalpel or electrocautery

PURPOSE: To compare the healing of abdominal wall aponeurosis of rats after incision with either cold scalpel or electrocautery. METHODS: Twelve male adults Wistar inbreed rats weightin 258-362g entered the experiment. They were randomly divided in two groups, control group (N= 6) and experimental group (N= 6). All animals underwent anesthesia followed abdominal wall incision with either cold scalpel (controls) or electrocautery (experimental group). The animals were killed on the 10th day and necropsied. Tissue samples containig the abdominal wall aponeurosis were sent for both histological study and hydroxyproline content assay. RESULTS: The histological study showed no significant difference between the two groups. Hydroxiproline content in experimenral group (128,56 [78,98-198,92] µg /100m) was not significantly different from control group (140,27 [116,20-166,59] mg /100ml; p = 0.53). CONCLUSION: Healing of abdominal wall after dieresis with either cold scalpel or electrocautery are equivalent and do not differ.