Rat Model for Practicing Microsurgical Vascular Anastomosis

I read with interest the article by Yin et al on “a novel model” for practicing different anastomosis configurations. The authors state that “there has been no animal model available for practicing all three anastomoses in one operation.”[1] I was surprised by this statement because the authors have cited one of the articles authored by me and my colleagues.[2] In that article, we clearly showed how to use a rat model for practicing all three arterial anastomosis configurations, namely, end-to-side, side-to-side, and end-to-end, using the abdominal aorta and common iliac arteries.[2] Obviously, the animal model mentioned by the authors is not novel. It has been previously proposed, studied, and published.[2] [3] [4] [5] Specifically, the use of common iliac arteries for practicing the end-to-side and side-to-side anastomoses was initially proposed by our team including detailed video demonstrations of vessel preparation and anastomosis techniques.[2] [3] Additionally, the nuances of technique, favorable portions of rat vessels and their lengths, as well as the pitfalls of exposing and preparing rat abdominal aorta and common iliac arteries for anastomosis were previously proposed for the first time in our publications.[2] [3] Of course, the use of medial sacral artery for practicing anastomosis is a new addition proposed by the authors. However, this does not translate to the novelty of the model as claimed by the authors.

Publication History

Received: 28 March 2020

Accepted: 15 July 2020

Article published online:
20 August 2020

• References

• 1 Yin X, Ye G, Lu J. , et al. A novel rat model for comprehensive microvascular training of end-to-end, end-to-side, and side-to-side anastomoses. J Reconstr Microsurg 2019; 35 (07) 499-504
• 2 Tayebi Meybodi A, Lawton MT, Yousef S, Mokhtari P, Gandhi S, Benet A. Microsurgical bypass training rat model: part 2-anastomosis configurations. World Neurosurg 2017; 107: 935-943
• 3 Tayebi Meybodi A, Lawton MT, Mokhtari P, Yousef S, Gandhi S, Benet A. Microsurgical bypass training rat model, part 1: technical nuances of exposure of the aorta and iliac arteries. World Neurosurg 2017; 107: 925-934
• 4 Shurey S, Akelina Y, Legagneux J, Malzone G, Jiga L, Ghanem AM. The rat model in microsurgery education: classical exercises and new horizons. Arch Plast Surg 2014; 41 (03) 201-208
• 5 Yonekawa Y, Frick R, Roth P, Taub E, Imhof H-G. Laboratory training in microsurgical techniques and microvascular anastomosis. Operat Tech Neurosurg. 1999; 2: 149-158