Preservative spleen surgery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy

To assess functional and morphological aspects of spleen auto-implants and of the splenic inferior pole of rats, post-operatively treated or not with hyperbaric oxygen, as well as the survival of these animals, were studied. Seventy-eight male Wistar rats, weighing between 192 and 283 g ( 238,3 +/- 9,6g), were randomly distributed into three groups: Group 1--(n=20), spleen manipulation; group 2--(n=36), spleen auto-implantation; group 3--(n= 22), subtotal splenectomy preserving the inferior pole. Each group was subdivided as follows: subgroup a, not submitted to hyperbaric oxygen therapy: 1a(n=10), 2a(n=21), 3a(n= 13); subgroup b, submitted to the therapy: 1b(n=10), 2b(n=15), 3b(n=9). Blood was collected pre-operatively and 11 days after surgery, for the estimation of lipids and immunoglobulins and the counting of platelets and Howell-Jolly corpuscles. The spleen and remains were taken for histological study. The number of surviving animals was significantly higher in groups 1(p