VASOCONSTRICTOR FIBERS

Abstract

In view of the persisting difference in opinion among surgeons as to the efficacy of "periarterial sympathectomy" as compared to sympathetic gangliectomy, a further study of the peripheral course of the vasoconstrictor neurons has recently been made. By means of a modification of Brooks' sodium iodide technic for the roentgenographic visualization of the femoral arterial tree, quite definite results have been obtained in the laboratory animal, which seem to constitute convincing evidence as to the location of the peripheral vasconstrictor pathways to the lower extremity. METHOD Brooks,¹ in 1924, demonstrated the possibility of roentgenographic visualization of the femoral arterial tree in man by means of the injection of a concentrated solution of sodium iodide. In the experiments to be reported Brooks' method has been modified only in that the iodide has been injected into the abdominal aorta, with the result that both femoral trees have been visualized at the