Recovery From Renal Ischemia in Rats and Dogs

Abstract

Experiments were carried out in male rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain and in mongrel dogs to determine the degree of recovery of renal function following ischemia. Rats subjected to 2 hour unilateral renal arterial occlusion and concurrent contralateral nephrectomy die within a few days. The great majority of rats with 2 hour renal arterial occlusion in which contralateral nephrectomy is delayed for 21 days survive for a long period of time, often with residual renal damage. In 2 dogs reported here and 2 elsewhere 6 hour unilateral renal arterial occlusion together with concurrent contralateral nephrectomy was followed by death within 10 days. In 6 additional dogs with 4 to 6 hour bilateral occlusion, all were reported elsewhere to have died within several days. Of 7 dogs with 6 hour unilateral renal arterial occlusion in which contralateral nephrectomy was delayed for several weeks, 1 survived nephrectomy 18 days and another survived until sacrificed 45 days later. The results indicate clearly in rats and probably in dogs that a degree of renal ischemic injury severe enough to be fatal in an animal depending upon this single injured organ, may with time be repaired sufficiently to allow the kidney to maintain life.