Abstract
In recent years evidence has accumulated that seriously questions the almost universally accepted belief that the absorption of a toxin from the intestinal canal is responsible for the death of the animal with simple obstruction of the bowel. There exist, however, a few bits of evidence which would substantiate such a belief. Sugito 1 found that blood serum obtained from obstructed dogs when injected into the peritoneal cavity of rats provoked toxic symptoms. Scholefield 2 has obtained results of a similar nature, but it is a noteworthy fact that he found no evidence of a toxic substance in the portal blood until the dogs were in a moribund condition.
In this study, 6 dogs were obstructed by severing and inverting the ends of the bowel in the lower ileum under aseptic conditions. When it was apparent that the obstructed animal was rapidly failing, the abdomen was opened under ether anesthesia and a large mesenteric vein was divided and the portal blood collected into a 3% solution of sodium citrate, (10 cc. per 100 cc. of blood). The blood thus obtained was injected into the external jugular vein of a normal anesthetized dog under aseptic conditions and the blood pressure of the recipient was registered by means of a cannula introduced into the carotid artery. Two other experiments were employed as controls. In one of these, 220 cc. of blood was obtained from the carotid artery of a normal dog and collected in the citrate solution. To this citrated blood 10 mg. of histamine dichloride was added. In the other control experiment, 100 cc. of 1% sodium citrate solution was administered intravenously without the addition of the blood.
The transfusion of the blood from the normal donor to which histamine was added resulted in an immediate and protracted drop of blood pressure to about one-half of the original reading despite the increase in blood volume; 17 minutes later the blood pressure almost regained the initial normal level.
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