Effect of methylene blue on intra-abdominal adhesion formation in rats.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Adhesion formation represents an important clinical challenge in gastro-intestinal surgery. In the late era, methylene blue (MB) has been claimed to play a helping role in combating such a problem. In the present study, we investigated the effects of MB administered intraperitoneally on the surgically-induced adhesions in rats and tried to clarify whether its impact is concentration-dependent. MATERIAL & METHODS: Seventy adult male Wistar rats were used. They were allocated into seven groups, ten rats each: one control, two sham-operated and four experimental ones. Peritoneal adhesions were evoked by scraping the cecal serosa in the four experimental groups which were given different concentrations of MB, intraperitoneally. The animals of the control group were similarly dealt but were given saline. The rats of the sham-operated groups were given either MB or saline but without any serosal damage. RESULTS: After the elapse of two weeks, the resulting adhesions, inflammation and fibrosis were evaluated. In the rats treated with MB 1%, adhesions, inflammatory process and fibrosis scores were similar to those in the sham-operated rats and were significantly lower than those in all other groups. CONCLUSION: It could be concluded that MB, 1%, had the best anti-adhesion potential.