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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

Published ahead of print on November 11, 2008
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1369

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 30:91-94, January 2009
© 2009 American Society of Neuroradiology

INTERVENTIONAL

Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Creation of Elastase-Induced Saccular Aneurysms in a Rabbit Model

D.A. Lewis^a, Y.H. Ding^a, D. Dai^a, R. Kadirvel^a, M.A. Danielson^a, H.J. Cloft^a and D.F. Kallmes^a

^a From the Neuroradiology Research Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn

Please address correspondence to Debra A. Lewis, PhD, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905; e-mail: lewis.debra{at}mayo.edu

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: 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.

MATERIALS AND 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 (R² = 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.