HEMORRHAGE AND SHOCK AS CAUSES OF DEATH FOLLOWING ACUTE PORTAL OBSTRUCTION

Abstract

Although it has been known for nearly a century that acute obstruction of the portal vein, such as that produced by ligation or that occasionally occurring through thrombosis after biliary operations, is always followed in a short time by death, no satisfactory explanation of the fatal outcome has been offered. The first demonstration of the phenomenon is attributed to Oré,¹ who, in 1856, discovered that ligation of the portal vein in rabbits resulted in the death of the animals in a short time. It is interesting that Claude Bernard² at one time admitted a complete inability to offer an explanation, but several years later³ expressed the theory that exsanguination, by stasis of blood in the intestinal tract, with a consequent fatal anemia might account for death. However, he offered no proof of that supposition, nor was he aware that Tappenheimer⁴ had previously reported experiments which tended