الفهرس 
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Abstract
This study was carried out on twenty four female rabbits of white New Zealand and Californian breeds (63 – 132 days old, and 1055 – 2910 gm body weight) with an aim to investigate an ideal method for skin closure after laparotomy operations in small animals. Four suture patterns were studied and compared in terms of effective wound healing, superior cosmetic outcomes and least liability for postoperative complications.
The animals were randomly divided into four equal groups based on the suture technique. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups according to the time of tissue specimens’ collection(on the 10th and 17th postoperative day).
Prior to surgery, the animals were subject into a general anesthesia protocol by a combination of ketamine and xylazine (50 mg/kg BW and 10 mg/kg BW respectively).A longitudinal midline incision (7 cm) was performed on the skin and the abdominal wall. The subcutaneous tissue, abdominal muscles and peritoneum were closed in a mass closure fashion with interrupted cross mattress stitches using monofilament polydioxanone sutures. The skin incision was sutured in four different suture patterns.
The laparotomy skin incision was closed in the first group by the buried continuous subcuticular-intradermal suture pattern ’BCSID’ (with polydioxanone sutures). The interrupted cross (cruciate) mattress suture pattern ’ICM’ was used in the second group. The running horizontal mattress ’RHM’ suture pattern was utilized in the third group. The far-near-near-far suture pattern ’FNNF’ was employed in the fourth group. The ICM, RHM and FNNF groups were sutured using silk sutures.
Clinical findings, gross examination, wound and suture biometrics, cosmetic assessment, postmortem examination, histopathological examination and statistical analysis were used for the comparison between the different techniques.
The running horizontal suture pattern may be recommended for closure of the skin laparotomy incision in small animals. The buried continuous subcuticular-intradermal suture pattern gave excellent cosmetic results but was not efficient enough to prevent wound dehiscence in some cases.
The cosmetic results revealed that the buried continuous subcuticular-intradermal suture pattern was the best one, the second was the running horizontal mattress suture pattern, the third was the interrupted cross mattress suture pattern, and the last one was the far-near-near-far suture pattern.
The results of wound and suture biometrics revealed that the suture to wound length ratio of all suture patterns appeared to have a correlation with the rate of wound dehiscence regardless of the other possible intervening factors.
The histolopathological results proved that the running horizontal mattress suture pattern was the favorable technique. The far-near-near-far was ranked as the second. The third was the buried continuous subcuticular-intradermal suture pattern. The worst was the interrupted cross mattress suture pattern.