Department of Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedics, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Bogdan Ciornei
Department of Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedics, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Florin-George Horhat
Department of Microbiology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Elena Amaricai
Department of Rehabilitation, Physical Medicine and Rheumatology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Ioana-Delia Horhat
Department of ENT, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Teodora Hoinoiu
Division of Clinical Practice Skills, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Eugen-Sorin Boia
Department of Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedics, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Sq. No 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Background: pectus excavatum (PE) is the most common congenital deformity of the thoracic wall. Lately, significant achievements have been made in finding new, less invasive treatment methods for PE. However, most of the experimental work was carried out without the help of an animal model. In this report we describe a method to create an animal model for PE in Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods: We selected 15 Sprague-Dawley rat pups and divided them into two groups: 10 for the experimental group (EG) and 5 for the control group (CG). We surgically resected the last four pairs of costal cartilages in rats from the EG. The animals were assessed by CT-scan prior to surgery and weekly for four consecutive weeks. After four weeks, the animals were euthanized and the thoracic cage was dissected from the surrounding tissue. Results: On the first postoperative CT, seven days after surgery, we observed a marked depression of the lower sternum in all animals from the EG. This deformity was present at every CT-scan after surgery and at the post-euthanasia assessment. Conclusions: By decreasing the structural strength of the lower costal cartilages, we produced a PE animal model in Sprague-Dawley rats.
