Intrauterine repair of surgically created defects in mice (lip incision model) with a microclip: preamble to endoscopic intrauterine surgery.

We compared the difference between a nonpenetrating silver microclip and suture on wound healing, inflammatory response, and application time in the repair of surgically created standardized unilateral cleft lip type defects in fetal mice. Excellent lip continuity and dermal reconstitution were achieved by both methods of repair. Furthermore, collagen accumulation did not occur. Occasional mononuclear cells were seen around sutured repairs in contrast to microclipped repairs. The most significant difference, however, was in application time with the microclip requiring an average of 7 seconds (+/- 2) compared to 90 seconds (+/- 15) for suture. We conclude that the microclip offers distinct advantages for intrauterine cleft lip repair: (1) nonpenetrating tissue approximation; (2) less inflammatory response than suture; (3) technically more rapid and less difficult to apply than suture; and (4) can be utilized more readily than suture for endoscopic approaches limiting the risks of fetal surgery for both the mother and the fetus.