Relative Values of Heat and Cold on Experimentally Produced Peritonitis

Abstract

Experiments were undertaken to throw light on the controversial question of the relative value of local applications of heat and cold on the course of peritonitis. They are based on 119 animals. Of these, 9 were sacrificed in obtaining cultures.

Experimental peritonitis was produced in dogs by the intraperitoneal injection of combined anaerobic and aerobic cultures obtained from animals in which a primary peritonitis occurred as a result of artificially produced obstruction of the cecal appendage. Peritoneal fluid was obtained with hypodermic syringe and needle and inoculated into tubes of meat digest broth, one test tube being incubated under anaerobic and the other under aerobic conditions. The 24 hour cultures of the 2 tubes were then mixed, and equal quantities of the resultant mixture introduced into the peritoneal cavity by hypodermic needles, the skin having previously been shaved and sterilized. The injection was uniformly made into the left lower quadrant at a point approximately midway between the umbilicus and anterior superior spine of the ilium. The animals were then divided into 3 groups. One group was used as control, and received no treatment except the administration of hypodermoclysis. A second group received, in addition to hypodermoclysis, a Leiter coil over the area of injection, through which a continual stream of cold brine flowed. In the third group a similar application to the abdominal wall was made, but hot water was passed through the coil. Observations every 3 hours included rectal temperatures and temperatures of the coil, the latter being obtained by a thermometer inserted between the lower surface of the coil and the abdominal wall. Hemoglobin estimation and leucocyte and differential blood count were made every 24 hours during the survival of the animal.