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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jan 27, 2026; 18(1): 111928
Published online Jan 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v18.i1.111928
Published online Jan 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v18.i1.111928
Septic shock reduces intestinal microcirculation and anastomotic perfusion: A porcine laser speckle contrast imaging study
Rupan Paramasivam, Nickolai M Kristensen, Helen Woldeselassie, Anders Husted Madsen, Mai-Britt Worm Ørntoft, Department of Surgery, Godstrup Hospital, Herning 7400, Midtjylland, Denmark
Claudia Jaensch, Department of Surgical Research, Regional Hospital West Jutland, Herning 7400, Midtjylland, Denmark
Susie Sarah Paramasivam, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Midtjylland, Denmark
Louise Kruse Jensen, Department of Veterinary and Animal Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2200, Hovedstaden, Denmark
Author contributions: Paramasivam R contributed to formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing - original draft, visualization, and funding acquisition; Kristensen NM, Paramasivam SS and Woldeselassie H contributed to investigation and writing, review, and editing; Jensen LK, Jaensch C and Madsen AH contributed to conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing, review, and editing; Ørntoft MBW contributed to conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing - original draft, and writing - review and editing.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal procedures were approved by the Danish Animal Experiments Inspectorate and conducted under the supervision of licensed veterinary staff at the Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University (AU Foulum), Denmark. The study was conducted in accordance with national regulations for animal research and was approved by the Danish Animal Experiments Inspectorate (Approval No. 2022-15-0201-01331).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the published article and its Supplementary material files. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rupan Paramasivam, MD, Researcher, Department of Surgery, Godstrup Hospital, Hospitalsparken 15, Herning 7400, Midtjylland, Denmark. ruppar@rm.dk
Received: July 14, 2025
Revised: August 6, 2025
Accepted: November 27, 2025
Published online: January 27, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 12.6 Hours
Revised: August 6, 2025
Accepted: November 27, 2025
Published online: January 27, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 12.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Septic shock profoundly affects intestinal blood flow, yet its impact on surgical anastomoses remains unclear. In this study, we used laser speckle contrast imaging in a porcine model to assess microcirculation in the small intestine and colon during induced septic shock. We demonstrate a significant reduction in microcirculation, especially at anastomotic sites, with hand-sewn anastomoses maintaining higher perfusion than stapled ones. These findings highlight the potential risk of impaired anastomotic healing during sepsis and emphasize the importance of optimizing surgical strategies in septic patients.