Abstract
BACKGROUND: The number of malignancies increased alarmingly. Surgery constitutes one of the most efficient therapeutic modalities for the treatment of solid tumors. The neoplastic implant in surgical wound is a complication whose percentage of occurrence reported in the literature is variable, but sets with high morbidity and therapeutic difficulties. Protecting the wound is one of the recommended principles of oncologic surgery. AIM: To evaluate the influence of wound protection in the development of tumor implantation. METHODS: Sarcoma 180 tumor cells were used, with intraperitoneal inoculation in Swiss mice. After the establishment of neoplastic ascites, animals were randomized into two groups of 10, each group consisting of five males and five females. In both groups, laparotomy and manipulation of intra-abdominal organs was performed. In a group laparotomy was performed using the protection of the abdominal wound and the other group without it. On the 9th postoperative day macroscopic evaluation of the operative scar was performed, which was later removed for microscopic evaluation. RESULTS: There was microscopic infiltration of tumor cells in the wound of all animals. However, the group that held the protection, infiltration was less intense when compared to the group without it. The infiltration was also more severe in females than in males of the same group. CONCLUSION: Tumor infiltration into the wound was more intense in the group in which the protection of the surgical site was not performed, and in females when compared to males of the same group.