Abstract
Animal models are necessary to develop and test innovations in aneurysm therapy before clinical introduction. This review aims at identifying the most likely candidates for standardizing preclinical testing of aneurysm devices. We systematically searched electronic databases for publications on animal aneurysm models from 1961-2008 to assess the methodologic quality of the studies and collect data on the patency and angiographic and pathologic outcomes of treatments. There has been a steady increase in the annual number of publications with time. Species that were most frequently used were dogs, rabbits, and rodents, followed by swine. Most publications are single-laboratory studies with variables and poorly validated outcome measures, a small number of subjects, and limited standardization of techniques. The most appropriate models to test for recurrences after endovascular occlusion were the surgical bifurcation model in dogs, and the elastase-induced aneurysm model in rabbits. A standardized multicenter study is needed to improve the preclinical evaluation of endovascular devices in aneurysm therapy.
Highlights
We identified 3 different models: lateral wall (82 studies; 2143 aneurysms, 57%); bifurcation (31 studies; 848 aneurysms, 22%); and elastase-induced aneurysms (27 studies; 794 aneurysms, 21%)
In the 44 studies on rabbits, 27 (61%) were on elastase-induced aneurysms, 7 (16%) on lateral wall aneurysms, and 10 (23%) on bifurcation aneurysms
There was no difference in quality scores among the lateral wall (5.07 Ϯ 0.19; n ϭ 72), bifurcation (5.41 Ϯ 0.22; n ϭ 31), and elastaseinduced aneurysm models (5.56 Ϯ 0.27; n ϭ 27) (P ϭ .38)
Summary
This review aims at identifying the most likely candidates for standardizing preclinical testing of aneurysm devices. Our aim was to review in the literature the main features of these models and their strengths and weaknesses in an effort to identify those that could serve as the most appropriate final assessor of new aneurysm devices immediately before clinical use. The main purpose of this review was to identify the best potential models that could serve such a standardizing role
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