Morbidity and mortality associated with creation of elastase-induced saccular aneurysms in a rabbit model.
OBJECTIVE
Elastase-induced aneurysms in rabbits have been proposed as a useful preclinical tool for device development. The object of this study was to report rates of morbidity and mortality associated with the creation and embolization of elastase-induced rabbit aneurysms and to assess the impact of operator experience on these rates.


METHODS
Elastase-induced model aneurysms were created in New Zealand white rabbits (n = 700). One neuroradiologist/investigator, naive to the aneurysm-creation procedure at the outset of the experiments, performed all surgeries. All morbidity and deaths related to aneurysm creation (n = 700) and embolization procedures (n = 529) were categorized into acute and chronic deaths. Data were analyzed with single-regression analysis and analysis of variance. To assess the impact of increasing operator experience, we broke the number of animals into 50-animal increments.


RESULTS
There were 121 (17%) deaths among 700 subjects. Among 700 aneurysm-creation procedures, 59 deaths (8.4%) were noted. Among 529 aneurysm-embolization procedures, 43 deaths (8.1%) were noted. Nineteen additional deaths (2.7% of 700 subjects) were unrelated to the procedures. Simple regression-indicated mortality associated with procedures diminished with increasing operator experience (R(2) = 0.38, P = .0180), and that for each 50-rabbit increment mortality was reduced, on average, by 0.6%.


CONCLUSIONS
Mortality rates of approximately 8% are associated with both experimental aneurysm creation and with embolization in the rabbit elastase-induced aneurysm model. Increasing operator experience is inversely correlated with mortality, and the age of the rabbit is positively associated with morbidity.
Lewis
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DA
Neuroradiology Research Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. lewis.debra@mayo.edu
Ding
Y H
YH
Dai
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D
Kadirvel
R
R
Danielson
M A
MA
Cloft
H J
HJ
Kallmes
D F
DF
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000401:mortality*; D010196:Pancreatic Elastase; D011817:Rabbits; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
D010196:Pancreatic Elastase