Objective To explore whether the peritoneal cooling after cardiopulmonary resuscitation could improve the injured of intestinal mucous in rabbits.

Methods 36 adult New Zealand rabbits were induced ventricular fibrillation by AC current. After the restore of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), rabbits were randomly divided into three groups according to the way of body temperature controlling, that is, nomothermia group (NT), surface cooling group (SC) and peritoneal cooling group (PC). The changing of tympanic temperature and peritoneal temperature were observed after ROSC. The animals were sacrificed by over anaesthesia after ROSC for 12 h, the end ileum was removed and fixed in formalin, the histological injured and the expression of TNF-a and VCAM-1 in ileum were observed by H.E staining and immune chemical methods.

Results 12 animals in each group, 9 in group NT, 10 in group SC and 9 in group PC were successfully resuscitated; all animals were on mechanical ventilation for 2 to 4 h. 5, 6 and 8 animals in each group respectively survived to the end of the experiment. The temperatures of tympanic and peritoneal cavity of animals in group NT were maintained in normal range. The tympanic temperature of animals in group SC and PC was arrived target temperatures at 29±6.55 min and 62±8.27 min. During the stage of maintenance of hypothermia, the tympanic and peritoneal temperatures of animals in group SC were in range 33 to 35°C, while the peritoneal temperatures of animals in group PC were in range 31 to 34°C, 1 to 2°C lower than the tympanic temperature. The scores of histological injured of ileum were 1.43±0.53 in group PC, 3.4±0.55 in group NT and 3.17±0.41 in group SC. The differences among them were significantly, PC versus SC, p<0.000; PC versus NT, p<0.000; while SC versus NT, p=0.30. The expression of TNF-a in ileum was 9.98±1.79% in group NT, 5.87±1.43% in group SC and 3.78±0.53% in group PC, the differences among them were significantly. The phenomenon of the expression of VCAM-1 was little like the TNF-a, 3.78±0.53% in group PC was significantly from the 8.53±1.53% in group NT and 5.92±1.06% in group SC.

Conclusion The neotype peritoneal cooling can improve the injured of ileum mucous beside quickly induce hypothermia after ROSC in rabbits.