Biomechanics and Microbiological Analyses of Chemically Prepared Cat Cadavers Kept in a Vacuum for Surgical Practice

There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction: Alternative methods have been employed to replace live animals in veterinary surgical training. This research aimed to evaluate conservation through biomechanical and microbiological analysis of cat cadavers using ethyl alcohol glycerin as a fixative and curing salts as a preservative in vacuum packaged, seeking veterinary surgery practice.
Materials and Methods: Cadavers were injected with 120 mL/kg of 20% sodium chloride, 1% nitrite and 1% sodium nitrate solution, and 150 mL/kg of alcohol with 5% glycerin and kept in vacuum packages between 0 to 4°C. Samples of the skin and jejunum were collected on day 0 (fresh samples), and on days D30, D60, D90, D120, biomechanical analyzes were performed and the fluid in the plastic packages were microbiologically analyzed.
Results: Outliers were removed, and data were analyzed by the Cramer-Von Mises test. Then, ANOVA and Tukey´s test (5%) were performed. The maximum rupture force (MRF) and rupture elongation (RE) of the control samples were 28.05N and 4.84mm and, during conservation, 24.94N and 5.62mm (30 days), 25.71N and 4.42mm (60 days), 25.46N and 5.50mm (90 days), and 25.18N and 5.20mm (120 days), respectively. There was no difference between control and conservation moments in MRF (p=0.8394); RE differed from the control at all moments (p=0.0087). The microbial population did not exceed 4.0 x 102 CFU/mL in total aerobics and 8.8 x 102 CFU/mL in total anaerobes; 25% of samples presented no contamination. Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus sp., Escherichia coli, Micrococcus sp., and Klebsiella sp. were identified.
Conclusion: Biomechanics was not significantly affected, and the microbiological count was low during conservation, demonstrating the possible effectiveness of this anatomical technique for surgery training.