Avaliação histológica dos impactos da síndrome cólica no cólon de equinos submetidos à celiotomia exploratória

Abstract

Colic syndrome represents the leading cause of mortality in equines, with ischemic lesions in the colon being a critical factor for prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the histological changes in the colon during equine colic syndrome and to correlate the severity of the lesions with the clinical outcome of the patients. Biopsy samples from the pelvic flexure of 16 horses submitted to exploratory celiotomy for acute abdomen treatment at the Veterinary Hospital of CCA-UFPB were analyzed. In this research, the main surgical diagnoses were colon impaction, displacement, and torsion, with the most severe histological lesions associated with cases of greater vascular compromise. The samples were processed, dehydrated, cleared, and embedded in paraffin. After sectioning, the slides were prepared, stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and examined by light microscopy. The lesions were graded according to a scoring system from 1 (mild) to 4 (severe), assessing parameters such as necrosis of the surface epithelium, crypt loss, edema, congestion, and hemorrhage. A relevant finding was the survival and hospital discharge of animals that presented maximum scores for mucosal injury (grade 4), indicating that histological evaluation alone is not an absolute predictor of mortality. It is concluded that while intraoperative histopathological analysis is a valuable prognostic tool for assessing intestinal viability, its findings must be interpreted in conjunction with clinical parameters, given the remarkable regenerative capacity of the colonic epithelium.