Prevention of Intra‐abdominal Adhesions by Electrical Stimulation

Abstract

The study investigated the ability of transdermal electric stimulation to prevent the formation of intraabdominal adhesions in the combination with Seprafilm Ò (anti-adhesive agent). One hundred and twenty-eight (128) rabbits were subjected to a surgical procedure to simulate the adhesion processes. After the simulation, the animals were divided into 4 groups (32 animals each), depending on the application of the methods of prevention: (1) control group (no anti-adhesives or electro-stimulation) (CG); (2) comparison group (applications of Seprafilm Ò ) (SF); (3) comparison group 2 (transdermal electric stimulation of the abdominal muscles) TES; (4) group (transdermal electric stimulation ? Seprafilm Ò ) (TES ? SF). We observed that the application of the Seprafilm Ò alone led to a significant decrease in the adhesive process compared to the control group (CG) (p \ 0.01). The adhesion process in the group underwent transdermal electrical stimulation (TES) was significantly lower compared to the Seprafilm Ò group (SF) (p B 0.05). The results demonstrated a significant decrease in the adhesion processes in the SF ? TES group on days 1, 3, 7 and 14 in comparison with the CG group (p = 0.001), SF group (p = 0.001) and TES group (p = 0.01) group of animals. This study showed the efficacy of transdermal electrical muscle stimulation for the prevention of intraabdominal adhesions. Moreover, the combination of Seprafilm Ò anti-adhesion agent and electrical muscle stimulation resulted in the complete absence of adhesions. Our findings indicate the potential of such strategy for further clinical application.