title: Histopathological features of the brain, liver, kidney and spleen following an innovative polytrauma model of the mouse.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Among the various introduced experimental traumatic brain injury models, there is a clear paucity of proper experimental polytrauma models. To overcome this experimental gap we introduced such a polytrauma model in the mouse including traumatic brain injury. Here, we report on the histopathological features of the brain, lung, kidney, spleen and liver.
  
  
  METHODS
  20 male C57BL mice with a mean weight of 23 g were anesthetized with ketamine and xylazine. The anaesthetized animals were subjected to a controlled cortical impact (CCI) over the left parieto-temporal cortex using rounded-tip impounder for application of a standardized brain injury. Following fracture of the right femur using a guillotine, a volume-controlled hemorrhagic shock was induced. The control groups included animals with CCI only (n=20) and animals with femur fracture plus hemorrhagic shock without CCI (n=20). Subjects were sacrified at 96 h following trauma. Brain, lung, kidney, spleen and liver of the animals underwent histopathological examinations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mortality rate at 96 h was 25% in the polytrauma group versus 10% in the control groups. Within the histopathological investigations, polytraumatized animals differ from those with a single trauma (traumatic brain injury or femur fracture with hemorrhagic shock) with various severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this study show that such a polytrauma model can be standardized resulting in a reproducible damage. This model fulfills the requirements of a standardized animal model. It allows adequate analogies and inferences to the clinical situation of a polytrauma in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625 Hannover, Germany. mirzayan@hotmail.com
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mirzayan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Probst
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samii
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Krettek
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gharabaghi
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Pape
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Griensven
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samii
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005264:Femoral Fractures / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D012769:Shock / Q000473:pathology; D012771:Shock, Hemorrhagic / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology