Comparison of human amniotic membrane and hyaluronate/carboxymethylcellulose membrane for prevention of adhesion formation in rats.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the effectiveness of human amniotic membrane (HAM) in the prevention of postoperative adhesion formation and to compare it with the efficacy of hyaluronate/carboxymethylcellulose (HA/CMC) membrane in a rat model.

METHODS

Following pilot studies and computer-generated randomization, 23 female Wistar albino rats were operated on in the full study. One of the uterine horns with standard lesions was treated with either HAM (n = 13) or HA/CMC (n = 10) and the other uterine horn served as the control. Second look laparotomies were performed 2 weeks after the operations. Main outcome measures were extent, severity, degree, total adhesion scores and histopathologic characteristics of adhesions.

RESULTS

Uterine horns treated with HAM had significantly lower total adhesion scores than the controls (5.15 +/- 2.67 vs. 7.92 +/- 1.50, P < 0.05). Total adhesion scores of uterine horns treated with HA/CMC membrane were significantly lower than those of the controls (4.30 +/- 1.95 vs. 7.50 +/- 1.84, P < 0.01). There were no significant differences between the HAM and HA/CMC groups regarding any adhesion scores.

CONCLUSIONS

HAM and HA/CMC membrane are both effective for prevention of adhesion formation in a rat uterine horn model; however, one does not seem to be more effective than the other.