Abstract
In explaining fixation of various foreign substances at the site of inflammation as the result of mechanical obstruction by thrombosed lymphatics and by a fibrin network in tissue spaces of the affected area, 3 types of evidence were presented: (1) the appearance of thrombosed lymphatics and of a fibrinous network; (2) the inability of substances to enter the site of inflammation when injected at its periphery; (3) finally, the inhibition of fixation upon the addition to the inflammatory irritant of a fibrin solvent, concentrated urea. 1 , 2 , 3 It has been pointed out that both factors, coagulated plasma in tissue spaces and fibrinous clots occluding lymphatics at the site of inflammation, can well account for fixation. Such clots in lymphatics have been seen in vivo as well as in fixed preparations. 4 At no time, however, has the writer maintained that either one of these 2 factors was more responsible for fixation than the other. In the types of inflammation studied previously with aleuronat or croton oil, both factors, i. e., a fibrinous network in tissue spaces and lymphatics occluded by thrombi had been found. This, though, does not preclude in the least that with some types of inflammatory irritants, fixation may not be predominantly due to one of these 2 factors.
Recently Field, Drinker and White 5 on the basis of the large amounts and increased pressure of free flowing lymph obtained from the main lymphatic trunk of the hind ankle in the anesthetized dog some hours after immersion of the paw in boiling water, conclude that it is more reasonable to ascribe the fixation of trypan blue to its inability to diffuse through the “gelatinous”-appearing subcutaneous tissue which was observed in such inflamed areas rather than to generalized thrombosis of lymphatics.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.