Bowel anastomosis. A comparative study of various surgical techniques.

Objective: Mechanical suture (stapler) has been in use for bowel anastomosis since the second half of the 20th century, however, it became popular since it was used widely by the United States of America in the late 1960. Since it is more expensive than the conventional method, a local experimental assessment was introduced to compare stapler with conventional methods.

Methods: Eighteen local dogs were used, 36 anastomosis were assessed in the animal house operating theater of King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between October 1998 and March 2000.

Results: The weight needed to disrupt the anastomosis was more in the stapler technique, the amount of intraperitoneal fluid, adhesion and the inflammatory response in histopathological study were less in the stapler technique. Our study has shown that the stapler technique is superior when compared with conventional bowel anastomosis.

Conclusion: We recommend stapler use in bowel anastomosis whenever clinically feasible.