José Roberto Alves; Luiz Roberto Lopes & Tânia Sasasaki

Summary

Thirty three healthy, New Zealand rabbits, underwent a total gastrectomy via laparotomy and subsequent evaluation of gastric dimensions. Were measured the lengths of the lesser and greater gastric curvature, in addition to the largest diameters of the organ. They presented average overall length of the lesser and greater curvature, respectively 6.7 cm and 27.3 cm. In addition, open surgical specimen presented a total area of 172.6 cm2. The sample was divided into two groups by age to perform comparisons between weight and stomach measures. Group 1 consisted of animals with age equal or less than 138 days and group 2 those with more than 138 days. No significant differences were found between the groups. This may suggest the use of younger animals to perform experiments related to surgical training involving the stomach, without dimensional prejudice of organ or generation of technical difficulties. Finally, it was noted also the predominance of the left gastric artery in the irrigation of the gastric wall and the presence of a transparent film between the liver and stomach in all animals.

KEY WORDS: Rabbit; Morphology; Stomach; Surgery; Training.

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