Postoperative biosynthetic human growth hormone increases the strength and collagen deposition of experimental colonic anastomoses.

This study examined the effects of preoperative treatment with 2.0 mg biosynthetic human growth hormone (b-hGH)/kg/day on the bursting strength and collagen deposition of experimental left colonic anastomoses, and of intact colon from sham-operated rats. The anastomotic bursting pressure was 55% higher in the b-hGH treated animals on day 2 (p less than 0.05) and 79% higher on day 4 (NS; p = 0.056), and the bursting wall tension was 65% higher on day 2 (p less than 0.05) and 112% higher on day 4 postoperatively (p less than 0.05), than saline-injected controls. The hydroxyproline content of the anastomotic segment in the b-hGH treated rats increased by 56% on day 4 (p less than 0.005) and by 30% on day 6 postoperatively (p less than 0.05), compared with controls. At 3 cm proximal to the anastomoses the defatted dry weight and hydroxyproline content of the healing colons were increased after 6 days compared with the sham-operated rats. There was, however, no difference between the b-hGH treated rats and the paired controls, indicating that growth hormone is not involved in this process.