Abstract
Abstract
To determine whether the mammalian intestinal tract is capable of reconstituting itself following complete transection, a 1-cm segment of the small or large bowel was excised in 44 rats. In an additional group of 52 rats the colon was transected distal to a diverting colostomy. In each case the open-cut ends of the intestine were simply dropped back into the peritoneal cavity and the abdominal incision was closed with sutures. Eight animals survived simple transection (18%) regaining functional intestinal continuity in 2 weeks and a morphologically normal appearing intestine in 1 month. When the colon was transected distal to a diverting colostomy the survival rate increased almost four-fold with complete reconstitution of the transected segment in 80% of the survivors.
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