Dehiscence of colonic anastomosis is one of the most severe complications after gastrointestinal surgery. The intestinal anastomosis healing complication is associated to several factors like malnutrition and hypoalbuminemia. This is an experimental study that aimed to evaluate the colonic anastomosis healing in malnutrition and hypoalbuminemia conditions. Animals were separated in two experimental groups: control and submitted to malnutrition (daily food intake as half of the control group per 20 days). Body weight, clinical outcome, serum albumin, abdominal cavity aspects, gross and microscopic aspects of the anastomosis, hepatic steatosis and tissue hydroxyproline dosage were compared between groups. Our results show that malnutrition development was efficient since a significant loss of body weight was observed in the experimental group. The malnutrition group of rats presented pathologic data all suggestive of lower prognostic and higher mortality rate. In conclusion, malnutrition interferes with the normal colonic anastomosis healing and increases the mortality rate.
malnutrition; colonic anastomosis; healing
