Comparison of sutures and cyanoacrylate tissue adhesives for wound repair in a rat model of corneal laceration.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cicatricial repair of a corneal artificial perforation in rats with 10-0 nylon suture, N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (NBCA) adhesive, or NBCA + methacryloxysulfolane (NBCA-MS) adhesive through microscopic and histological assays.

Methods: Twenty Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups each containing 5 rats: (1) control group (corneal trauma without suturing and tissue adhesives), (2) suture group, (3) NBCA group and (4) NBCA-MS group. A central full-thickness 2-mm laceration was performed in the left eyes of the studied rats in all 4 groups. The presence of corneal edema, corneal neovascularization and tissue adhesive/suture were evaluated. On the 21st day, the rats were sacrificed and histological examination was performed to determine irregularity of corneal layers, superficial epithelization, polymorphonuclear leucocytes and neovascularization.

Results: Tissue adhesives were as effective as suturing in closing full-thickness corneal wounds and no difference in postoperative healing was observed clinically. As for the histological results, suture-treated eyes had persistent corneal irregularity that can limit visual acuity and may also lead to astigmatism.

Conclusions: The use of tissue adhesives constitutes a viable alternative clinical procedure to conventional sutures. Possible influences on astigmatism are hypothetical, as no objective measure of astigmatism was performed in the test animals.