Abstract
The effect of unilateral lumbar sympathectomy on the healing of bone defect has been studied experimentally in the following manner. Dogs were used throughout. A left lumbar sympathectomy, including at least 3 ganglia, sometimes 4, and the intervening chains, were excised from the sacral promontory upwards. Immediately following this procedure, equal fragments, approximately 1.5 mm. in length, were resected subperiosteally from the upper end of both fibulae. This method for studying bone repair was chosen in preference to simply fracturing the bones, as repair can be studied more satisfactorily by roentgenograms. Also the fibulae were chosen as they are not essential to weight bearing, hence splints and casts were not used. Healing was determined by roentgenograms and was considered complete when callus had completely bridged the gap between the bone ends.
Seventeen dogs were used. Seven developed infection of the fibular wounds and were sacrificed. Six of the remaining 10 presented an unexpected complication of fibular bone absorption rather than healing, and will not be discussed in this paper.
Of the remaining 4 one dog died of pneumonia 7 weeks after operation. At the time of death there was more callus on the non-sympathectomized side, although the bone defect was not completely healed.
Complete healing occurred in the other 3, the average time being 12 weeks. In each, there was a more rapid healing on the non-sympathectomized side, averaging 3 weeks sooner.
Fibular fragments were excised from another dog, in which only a left lumbar sympathectomy had been done 6 months previously. No difference was noted in the healing time, between the sympa-hypophysectomized and the non-sympathectomized sides. In this case the effects of the sympathectomy had probably worn off at the time the bone fragments were removed.
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