Swine models had been popular in paediatric oesophageal surgery in the past. Although being largely replaced by rodent models, swine experienced a revival with the establishment of minipig models. However, none of them has ever been investigated for similarity to humans. We conducted a pilot study to determine whether three-week old Pietrain piglets and three-month old Aachen Minipigs are suitable for experimental paediatric oesophageal atresia surgery. We tested the operation's feasibility, performed a necropsy, weighed organs, measured organ length and calculated relative weights and lengths, and measured laboratory parameters. We used multidimensional scaling to assess the similarity of the swine breeds with previously published human data. Pietrain piglets had a higher a priori bodyweight than Aachen Minipigs (Δ = 1.31 kg, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37-2.23, p = 0.015), while snout-to-tail length was similar. Pietrain piglets had higher absolute and relative oesophageal lengths (Δ = 5.43 cm, 95% CI: 2.2-8.6; p = 0.0062, q1* = 0.0083 and Δ = 11.4%, 95% CI: 5.1-17.6; p = 0.0025, q3* = 0.0053). Likewise, absolute and relative small intestinal lengths were higher in Pietrains, but all other parameters did not differ, with the exception of minor differences in laboratory parameters. Multidimensional scaling revealed three-week old Pietrain piglets to be similar to two-month old humans based on their thoracoabdominal organ weights. This result indicates three-week old Pietrain piglets are a suitable model of paediatric oesophageal atresia surgery, because clinically many procedures are performed at around eight weeks age. Three-month old Aachen Minipigs were more dissimilar to eight-week old humans than three-week old Pietrain piglets.

中文翻译：

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在先天性食管闭锁的模型选择中使用多维标度：人类尸检器官重量与对亚琛Minipig和Pietrain仔猪的比较评估的相似性分析。

过去，猪模型在小儿食道外科手术中很流行。猪虽然被啮齿动物模型所取代，但随着小型猪模型的建立，猪的生活得到了复兴。但是，它们中没有一个与人类相似。我们进行了一项初步研究，以确定三周大的Pietrain仔猪和三月大的亚琛迷你猪是否适合实验性小儿食管闭锁手术。我们测试了该手术的可行性，进行了尸检，器官称重，测量的器官长度，计算出的相对重量和长度以及测量的实验室参数。我们使用多维标度来评估猪品种与先前发布的人类数据的相似性。Pietrain仔猪的先验体重比亚琛迷你猪（Δ= 1.31 kg，95％的置信区间（CI）：0.37-2.23，p = 0.015），而鼻子到尾的长度相似。Pietrain仔猪的食管绝对长度和相对长度较高（Δ= 5.43 cm，95％CI：2.2-8.6; p = 0.0062，q1 * = 0.0083和Δ= 11.4％，95％CI：5.1-17.6; p = 0.0025，q3 * = 0.0053）。同样，Pietrains的绝对和相对小肠长度也较高，但除实验室参数略有差异外，所有其他参数均无差异。多维缩放显示，基于胸腹器官重量，三周大的Pietrain仔猪与两个月大的仔猪相似。该结果表明，三周大的Pietrain仔猪是小儿食道闭锁手术的合适模型，因为临床上许多手术都是在八周龄左右进行的。