Gastrectomy and Subsequent Hematologic Studies in the Hog

Abstract

Blood studies in gastrectomized animals have been done in the dog 1 and in the rat. 2 The presence of substances effective in pernicious anemia in hog's liver and whole desiccated stomach made it seem worth while to study the effect of gastrectomy in the hog on hematopoiesis. We desire to report our preliminary observations during the past 7 months.

Five Poland China pigs 12 1/2 weeks of age were selected. On the 24th of June, 1933, four of the pigs were gastrectomized by us in the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin Medical School at Madison,∗ one being reserved as control. The distal end of the esophagus was sutured to the side of the first loop of jejunum after closing the proximal end of the duodenum. The operation is more easily performed in the hog than in the dog.

One animal died on the day following operation due to peritonitis consequent to spillage of material from a stomach distended with food, the stomach of this hog not having emptied after 12 hours of starvation. The remaining animals were transferred from Madison to our laboratories on their 48th postoperative day. They have been kept in open air cages since their second postoperative week. A second animal died of stricture of the lower esophagus 71 days after operation. This stricture occurred at the site at which the clamp had been applied. The remaining 2 pigs and the control are living and well on their 210th postoperative day.

The results of gastrectomy and of therapy with ferric ammonium citrate on the microcytic hypochromic anemia, which developed to a point requiring treatment in their fourth postoperative month, are summarized in the accompanying table. The diet has consisted of a mixed meal (18% P; 3.5%fat; 45% C; and 7% fiber) made into a thick mush and brought to the boiling point in a steam cooker.