Post-operative levamisole may compromise early healing of experimental intestinal anastomoses (original) (raw)

There exists growing interest in immediate post-operative local adjuvant therapy after resection of intestinal malignancies. It is therefore necessary to assess it potential effect on the healing of intestinal anastomoses. Five groups (n = 20) of rats underwent resection and anastomosis of both ileum and colon: a control group and four experimental groups receiving intraperitoneal 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), 5-FU plus leucovorin, 5-FU plus levamisole or levamisole alone, on the day of surgery and the next 2 days. Animals were killed 3 or 7 days after operation. Another three groups (n = 6) of animals were used to compare anastomotic collagen synthetic capacity in control rats or rats receiving 5-FU or 5-FU plus levamisole. On the third post-operative day, the average anastomotic bursting pressure in the 5-FU/levamisole group was reduced by 36% as compared with the control group, both in ileum (P = 0.02) and in colon (P = 0.01). Values in the other groups were similar to those in the cont...