Objective  To investigate the effect of medical self-crosslinking sodium hyaluronate gel on intestinal anastomosis healing, abdominal wall incision healing and survival rate in rats.

Methods  A total of 76 healthy adult male SD rats were routinely bred, 64 rats were selected to establish colonic anastomosis model and randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 32 rats in each group. The remaining 12 rats were assigned to non-operation group. The colonic anastomosis of rats in the experimental group was coated with 1 mL medical self-crosslinking sodium hyaluronate gel, while the anastomosis of rats in the control group was not treated. The survival rate of rats in the control group and the experimental group was observed. The abdominal wall incision and peritoneal or muscular healing of rats in the experimental group and the control group were examined 7 and 14 days after operation, and the healing conditions of intestinal anastomosis in rats were evaluated based on the tensile strength.

Results  The vital signs of all animals after surgery were stable, and animals gradually restored the ability of independent activities, there were no dead and infected rates in two groups, with the survival rate of 100.00%. At 7 d or 14 d after operation, there were no significant differences in abdominal wall incision healing and peritoneal or muscular layer healing between the experimental group and the control group (P>0.05). The tensile strength of intestinal anastomosis in control group and experimental group was lower than that of normal colon in the non-operation group on the 7th and 14th days after operation (P < 0.05). On the 7th and 14th day after operation, the tensile strength of the intestinal anastomosis of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion  Medical self-crosslinking sodium hyaluronate gel can significantly improve the tensile strength of colonic anastomosis in rats, and has no influences on abdominal wall incision and peritoneal or muscular healing.