BACKGROUND: Sepsis is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in trauma victims and surgical patients, and despite of all the technology and therapy available, the statistics for these cases is not diminishing. AIM: To evaluate the acid-basic repercussions and degree of pulmonary injury due to abdominal sepsis in rats after 6 and 24 hours of fecal peritonitis through cecal ligation and puncture. METHODS: CLP in experimental groups. Forty Wistar adult rats were distributed into four groups: A (sham/6 h - n=5) submitted to infra-umbilical median laparotomy, with no other interventions; B (sham/24 h - n=5) submitted to infra-umbilical median laparotomy, with no other interventions; C (CLP/6 h - n=15) submitted to ligation and cecal puncture and D (CLP/24 h - n=15) submitted to ligation and cecal puncture. According to the study group, after a period of six or 24 hours, the animals were once again anesthetized and submitted to the following analysis: clinical observations for sings of sepsis, laparotomy through the same access point made earlier, cultures of peritoneal fluid, cardiac puncture for obtaining sufficient blood samples for arterial gasometry, hematocryte e leucometry analysis. Euthanasia was performed and lungs removed were analyzed for pulmonary edema and inflammatory infiltrate. RESULTS: Four deaths occurred in group D. The presence of mixed acidosis in all groups was verified. When comparing groups B and D, two significant variables were found: HCO3 (p=0,0015) and BE (p=0,0015), demonstrating a more severe metabolic acidosis in the experimental group. Mixed acidosis was also confirmed in the control group, due to alterations regarding HCO3 (p=0,0079), PO2 (p=0,0079) and SO2 (p=0,0079). Correlation between pulmonary commitment and metabolic state confirms the existence of systemic inflammatory response, demonstrated through the increase of neutrophils and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage of the lungs of septic rats. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that CLP was an efficient method to induce sepsis in rats. It was observed that laparotomy and bows' manipulation resulted in mixed acidosis in rats, being verified by gasometrical findings, demonstrating to be a reliable method for the detection of acid-basic metabolic alterations in the rats studied.
Blood Gas Analysis; Sepsis; Rats,Wistar; Peritonitis; Animal Experimentation
