Abstract
Background Revascularized digits may fail because of vessel thrombosis. The current study aimed
to develop a standard model for crush injury in the rat femoral artery to evaluate
the antithrombotic effect of perivascular botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) injection.
Methods We explored bilateral femoral arteries of 10 rats using a microscopic technique.
The crush injury was reproduced using a bulldog clamp. One randomly chosen leg of
each rat was injected with BTX-A. The other side received normal saline as its own
control. After 24 hours, the femoral arteries were ligated distal to the trauma site
and were divided between the traumatized and ligated sites.
Results All arteries injected with BTX-A had pulsatile bleeding without thrombosis. Arteries
injected with normal saline had thrombosis without bleeding, except for one with oozing.
The results showed the efficacy of BTX-A and its potential use in microvascular trauma
(p < 0.001).
Conclusion The use of BTX-A preoperatively in the emergency department may help reduce traumatic
stress and subsequent thrombosis and improve trauma management results. Complementary
studies are needed to assess the ability of BTX-A to reduce thrombosis and vasospasm
and improve survival of traumatized digits.
Keywords
botulinum toxin A - thrombosis - microvascular
