Comparing Minimally Invasive Puncture Under Local Anesthesia to Open Laparotomy Under General Anesthesia for Establishing a Rabbit VX2 Liver Tumor Model

Gang Yuan,1,* Ran Cui,2,* Yanneng Xu,1,* Jianming Luo,1 Bo Zheng,1 Wei Hu,1 Xun Zhang,1 Guangyan Si1 1Department of Interventional & Vascular, Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First People’s Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Guangyan Si, Department of Interventional & Vascular, Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, 646000, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: To compare ultrasound-guided percutaneous puncture under local anesthesia (LA) versus open laparotomy under general anesthesia (GA) for establishing a rabbit VX2 liver tumor model, evaluating efficacy, safety, animal welfare, and tumor biology.Methods: Twenty-eight rabbits were randomly assigned to Group A (ultrasound-guided percutaneous under LA, n = 14) or Group B (open surgery under GA, n = 14). Parameters compared included anesthesia and operation time, intraoperative blood loss, surgical trauma, postoperative complications, mortality, tumor implantation success rate, tumor volume, and tumor characteristics were evaluated via imaging and histopathological analysis.Results: Compared to Group B, Group A demonstrated significantly shorter anesthesia preparation time (61.00 ± 6.70 s vs 632.60 ± 67.84 s, P < 0.0001) and operation time (4.99 ± 0.65 min vs 28.57 ± 5.35 min, P < 0.0001), alongside significantly reduced intraoperative blood loss (0.75 ± 0.26 mL vs 3.96 ± 0.77 mL, P < 0.0001). No significant differences were found in tumor implantation success rate (92.9% vs 85.7%) or tumor volume between the groups. However, Group A showed significantly lower rates of peritoneal seeding (7.1% vs 42.9%, P = 0.037) and abdominal wall invasion (0% vs 35.7%, P = 0.045). Group A also exhibited favorable trends in postoperative infection and mortality rates.Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided percutaneous puncture under LA is a superior method for creating the VX2 liver model. It is faster, less invasive, reduces bleeding and tumor dissemination risk, maintains equivalent tumorigenicity, and better adheres to animal welfare principles.Keywords: VX2 liver tumor model, minimally invasive puncture, local anesthesia, open laparotomy, comparative study