CONTINUOUS PANCREATIC SECRETION

Abstract

In dogs whose pancreas is cannulated according to the Rous-McMaster technique, secretion is continuous. Food or the injection of secretin temporarily increases the rate of flow. Secretin juice is secreted under a higher pressure than that of continuous secretion. Anesthesia may completely inhibit the flow of pancreatic juice. With ether the effect seems to be more marked than with amytal. Ether anesthesia increases the amylase level in the blood. This is explained on the basis of the double mechanism of formation and transport of pancreatic secretion. Ether abolishes the latter, thereby raising the blood amylase level through resorption of the enzyme. In dogs with "altercursive fistulas" where there is admittedly no gastric hypersecre-tion and no lack of neutralization of gastric HCl, the spontaneous secretion can be demonstrated after 48 hrs. of fasting. The conclusion seems inevitable that continuous pancreatic secretion is a normal phenomenon and not "pathological hypersecretion.".