EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH AND SURGERY: WHY, HOW, AND WHEN? ANTONIO DI CATALDO, M.D., 1 * GIOVANNI TROMBATORE, M.D., 1 ROSANNA CIRALDO, M.D., 1 MARGHERITA RODOLICO, M.D., 1 MASSIMILIANO SORBELLO, M.D., 2 and GIOVANNI LI DESTRI, M.D. 1 Experimental research faces two great problems: the signifi- cant reduction of public funding and the firm opposition of the public opinion. The law forbids the use of large animals, so that it is possible to use small animals only, which require microsurgical techniques. However, even a skillful surgeon does not know how to perform microsurgery and has to begin a long and tiring training to master techniques. We think that experimental surgery should play a role because it tests the validity and safety of new surgical techniques and allows special pathophysiological aspects to be studied. Further- more experimental surgery could represent an essential stage in the training of young surgeons. We should find a balance between observance of the law and respect of the animals and, on the other hand, the role of experimental surgery because we should not forget that its most important aim is the improvement of the health of the humankind. La ricerca sperimentale presenta delle difficolta ` che dipen- dono in gran parte dalla scarsezza dei fondi ad essa destinati e dalla latente ostilita ` dell’opinione pubblica. Le leggi hanno ormai praticamente abolito la possibilita ` di utilizzare animali di grossa taglia per cui si possono impiegare solo piccoli animali, con la necessita ` di ricorrere a tecniche microchirur- giche, che non sono patrimonio di tutti i chirurghi, per cui per acquisirle bisogna sottoporsi a lunghi ed estenuanti tirocinii. Noi riteniamo che alla chirurgia sperimentale debba essere riconosciuto un suo ruolo per le possibilita ` che essa fornisce di saggiare la validita ` di nuove tecniche chirurgiche, di stu- diare particolari aspetti di fisiopatologia e di consentire un adeguato training dei giovani chirurghi. Sarebbe forse piu ` giusto trovare un migliore equilibrio tra l’osservanza delle leggi ed il rispetto degli animali da un lato e la giusta collo- cazione della chirurgia sperimentale dall’altro, non dimenti- cando che quest’ultima ha come scopo unico ed esclusivo il miglioramento della salute dell’uomo. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MICROSURGERY 21:118–120 2001 Currently, all around the world, there is a heated debate about the role of the experimental research in the surgical field, the correct way to perform experimental surgery, the aims to pursue, the possibility of including the experimental surgery in the university medical system. In Italy, but we believe that this is true worldwide, those wanting to undertake experimental research face two great problems. The first is obtaining the economic resources. It is well known that it is costly to correctly perform an experi- mental study and there is a significant reduction in public funding. The other great problem is the firm opposition of the public opinion because everyone believes that experi- mental research causes pain to the animals without any ad- vantage to the human health. The role of the animal welfare movement has been con- siderable and led scientists to improve the rules that regulate animal experimentation. The supervision of a veterinarian is useful to obtain appropriate housing and satisfactory care of the animals, factors that appear essential in giving scientific validity to the study. Adequate training of the experimental surgeons is another useful factor, and since in our daily clinical activity nothing is improvised, we think that nothing should be improvised in the experimental research, but ev- ery step of each study has to be carefully examined. It is not easy to choose the appropriate animal, but the use of large animals (primates, pigs, dogs) is very expen- sive, and in Italy, moreover, it is almost impossible to obtain legal authorization to use these animals. You must show that you could not achieve the same results using small animals. Therefore, small animals (rabbit, rat) are the most used ani- mals in the experimental research, and the rat became the animal of choice, since its use has many advantages: low cost and permitted by law, available and easy to house, easy anaesthetise, no sterile technique is required, solo surgery and the possibility of doing many surgical 1 Institute of First Surgical Clinic, University of Catania, Catania, Italy 2 Institute of Anaesthesiology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy *Correspondence to: Prof. Antonio Di Cataldo, M.D., Viale Odorico da Porde- none 5, 95128 Catania, Italy Received 10 March 2001; Accepted 15 March 2001 © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.