The effect of surrounding infection upon the healing of colonic wounds

Conclusions Under the conditions of these experiments, the concomitant development of gross infection (pouch abscess) adjacent to sutured colonic wounds and anastomoses did not prevent macroscopic healing of the bowel in any of the 39 dogs in which such abscesses were found. Bowel preparation with framycetin (used in 17 of 42 dogs) did not produce any obvious difference in macroscopic healing of colonic wounds and anastomoses; nor was there any difference in microscopic healing or resistance to bursting pressure, although the numbers of experiments in these two categories were too small to be significant.