Prevention of blood-transfusion-induced impairment of anastomotic healing by leucocyte depletion in rats

Objective: To find out what effect whole blood and leucocyte‐depleted blood transfusions had on the healing process of intestinal anastomoses in rats. Design: Experimental study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Greece. Subjects: 100 Wistar rats in five groups of 20 each. Interventions: Small and large bowel anastomoses were made and the five groups were given normal saline, homologous whole blood, heterologous whole blood obtained from PVG rats, homologous leucocyte‐depleted blood or heterologous leucocyte‐depleted blood during the operation. Main outcome measures: Bursting pressures of anastomoses on the third and seventh postoperative days and infective complications. Results: The groups given whole blood transfusions had significantly more anastomotic abscesses than controls (p = 0.003 compared with heterologous, p = 0.05 compared with homologous for the small bowel, and p = 0.007 for the large bowel). The pressure measurements indicated a significant reduction in anastomotic strength in the same groups compared with the control group (p = 0.0001/p = 0.001 on the third postoperative day, and p = 0.00001/p = 0.0004 on the seventh postoperative day for small and large bowel, respectively). There was no reduction in anastomotic strength in the leucocyte‐depleted blood groups. Conclusions: Transfusion of leucocyte‐depleted blood does not seem to impair intestinal anastomotic healing and carries an acceptable incidence of postoperative complications. Copyright © 2000 Taylor and Francis Ltd.