CHEMICAL STUDIES ON EXPERIMENTAL HEPATIC CONGESTION IN THE DOG

Abstract

IN A RECENT paper¹ two of us (D. K. and T. C. H.) described a method for producing hepatic congestion with accompanying portal hypertension in the dog by a three stage operational procedure. The method involved the partial ligation of the posterior vena cava caudad to the liver and cephalad to the kidneys (stage I), in this way allowing collateral venous pathways already present to become better developed and thus preventing venous congestion. This was followed after a time by a second operation in which the vena cava was completely severed at the point of ligation (stage II) and by a third in which the vena cava just anterior to the diaphragm was partially occluded (stage III). The present paper reports the results of chemical studies on 4 dogs who had been subjected to this procedure. These studies were carried out in an attempt to determine whether congestion of