Acute bronchial obstruction: an experimental rabbit model study

An animal model of bronchial obstruction was developed to radiologically follow up the development of postobstructive pulmonary changes. The study material consisted of 21 healthy rabbits (New Zealand White) of which 5 animals served as controls. A piece of Surgicel (Ethicon) shaped as a 3 × 3 × 10 mm cylinder was placed endobronchially through a 3-mm bronchoscope. The animals were followed up radiologically and endoscopically during the first 30 min after which the bronchoscope was extracted. Sixteen animals were followed up for at least 4 h and, in 4 animals, the foreign body (FB) was removed after 24 h. During follow-up, total collapse of the lung was observed after 1–4 h in all but 2 animals with obstruction of the main brochus. After extraction of the FB, atelectasis of the respective lung had resolved within 24 h. The animal model developed in the present study seems to be rather physiological resembling the development of pulmonary atelectasis in pediatric patients.