Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a well established method of
depuration in uremic patients. Standard dialysis solutions
currently in use are not biocompatible with the peritoneal
membrane. Studying effects of dialysate on peritoneal membrane
in humans is still a challenge. There is no consensus on the ideal
experimental model so far. We, therefore, wanted to develop a
new experimental non-uremic rabbit model of peritoneal dialysis,
which would be practical, easy to conduct, not too costly, and
convenient to investigate the long-term effect of dialysis fluids.
The study was done on 17 healthy Chinchilla male and female
rabbits, anesthetized with Thiopental in a dose of 0.5 mg/kg
body mass. A catheter, specially made from Tro-soluset (Troge
Medical GMBH, Hamburg, Germany) infusion system, was then
surgically inserted and tunneled from animals' abdomen to their
neck. The planned experimental procedure was 4 weeks of
peritoneal dialysate instillation. The presented non-uremic rabbit
model of peritoneal dialysis is relatively inexpensive, does not
require sophisticated technology and was well tolerated by the
animals. Complications such as peritonitis, dialysis fluid leakage,
constipation and catheter obstruction were negligible. This model
is reproducible and can be used to analyze the effects of different
dialysis solutions on the rabbit peritoneal membrane.