Experimental cirrhosis of the liver

Abstract

Administration of chloroform by inhalation prolonged during one or more hours produces necrosis implicating the central part of the liver lobule. When recovery follows, connective tissue does not replace the destroyed parenchyma. By removing bits of liver tissue shortly after prolonged chloroform anesthesia Whipple has recently shown that necrosis destroying from one third to three fifths of the liver lobule rapidly undergoes repair so that at the end of three weeks the organ has returned to normal.

Herter and Williams have produced well marked cirrhosis by inhalation of chloroform repeated during several weeks. The following experiments are described because they show that advanced cirrhosis with portal obstruction may be produced in dogs by repeated administration of chloroform by mouth; that two different lesions may be produced by the same substance.