A Comment on the Pulmonary Contusion Model

Reply by the Authors of the Original Article

We read the article of Boybeyi et al.[1] The authors studied the effect of dimethyl sulfoxide and dexamethasone on a contused lung with a rat model.

They declared using 0.5 kg weight and 0.4 m height for pulmonary contusion. We think that falling 500 g weight from 40 cm is too much for the rats. We also have a model for blunt thoracic trauma identical to theirs.[2] In our model, we used a 90-cm pipe and three types of weights: 40, 70, 100 g. With these weights, we gained light, moderate, and severe thoracic blunt trauma. In their model, Raghavendran et al[3] used 0.3 kg weight and height combinations (1.80–2.70 J) to gain bilateral lung contusion. They positioned the rat in supine position and used a platform above the rat. Therefore, higher trauma intensities can be used with a platform to the anterior chest wall.

As we understand from the text, this study has two parts: the first part is the trauma part and the second part is the evaluation of the substances. To gain reliable results, the first part must be established well. We think that a control group for the trauma should have been established. If a preliminary study was performed, it should be mentioned. As a result, we think that the first part of the article should have been detailed.

• References

• 1 Boybeyi O, Bakar B, Aslan MK, Atasoy P, Kisa U, Soyer T. Evaluation of dimethyl sulfoxide and dexamethasone on pulmonary contusion in experimental blunt thoracic trauma. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2014; 62 (8) 710-715
• 2 Yücel O, Genç O, Özcan A , et al. The blunt thoracic trauma model on rat lungs: an experimental study. Gulhane Med J 2008; 50 (4) 249-252
• 3 Raghavendran K, Davidson BA, Helinski JD , et al. A rat model for isolated bilateral lung contusion from blunt chest trauma. Anesth Analg 2005; 101 (5) 1482-1489