gms | German Medical Science

130. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

30.04. - 03.05.2013, München

Experimental model of acute aortic rupture with porcine aortas

Meeting Abstract

  • Tomasz Dziodzio - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Visceral-, Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Adel Sakic - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Herzchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Radoslaw Kozaryn - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Herzchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Fabian Plank - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Herzchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Johannes Holfeld - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Herzchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Günter Klima - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, Department für Anatomie, Histologie und Embryologie, Innsbruck
  • Martin Czerny - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Visceral-, Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Michael Grimm - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Visceral-, Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Roland Schistek - Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck, Universitätsklinik für Visceral-, Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. 130. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. München, 30.04.-03.05.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. Doc13dgch471

doi: 10.3205/13dgch471, urn:nbn:de:0183-13dgch4710

Published: April 26, 2013

© 2013 Dziodzio et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Introduction: Few is known about the pressure leading to rupture of normal aortic tissue. The aim of our study was to evaluate maximum pressures causing acute aortic ruptures and correlate these results with mechanical properties of the aortic wall using ex-vivo porcine aortic specimens.

Material and methods: Fresh porcine descending aortic specimens with a branchless length exceeding more than 35mm were included in our study. Characteristics as length, proximal and distal diameter and aortic thickness were gained. The specimens were filled with water, increasing the pressure continuously until rupture of the vessel occurred. The pressure curves were monitored and changes in length and diameter were recorded. Afterwards aortic stripes were created out of the ruptured specimens and a stress-strain-test was performed.

Results: A total of 51 experiments were performed. The mean rupture pressure was 1652±248 mmHg. We observed 37 transverse, 12 oblique and 2 longitudinal ruptures. Dissections occurred in 12 cases. The stress-strain-test revealed a 17.8% higher mean rupture pressure in the transverse stripes and 55.6% in the oblique stripes (2145±568 mmHg and 3763±643 mmHg) compared to the water experiment.

Conclusion: In contrast to recent calculated data we observed lower mean maximal pressures leading to acute aortic ruptures (1652 vs. 2500 mmHg). The descending aortas ruptured more often transversely than longitudinally. This observation may be explained by different anisotropic properties of the aortic tissue. Dissections occurred in 12 cases, being comparable to those observed in clinics and may be explained by different elasticity of aortic wall layers, leading to higher wall stress of the intima during distension. The unidirectional strip-strain-tests revealed higher rupture pressures than the water experiment and substantially overestimated the actual rupture pressure of aortic tissue. Our findings may serve as a basis for a broader understanding of aortic pathologies and lead to reconsideration of the validity of aortic strain-stress-tests.