Auto-Injection of the Biliary Passages from the Gall Bladder in Rabbit

Abstract

Contraction of the rabbit gall bladder may drive its contents back into the biliary passages if the bile papilla is tonically contracted or if the choledochus is clamped, and dyes previously injected into the gall bladder may then be demonstrated in the liver and arterial blood. Experimental Procedure. 300 mg sodium barbital subcutaneously per kg animal; clamp choledochus; expose gall bladder and withdraw 1 cc of bile; through the same hypo needle kept in situ inject 0.5 cc of 5% sodium fluoresceinate solution; clamp the puncture in the gall bladder by means of a small narrow-jawed bulldog clamp; to contract the gall bladder, 0.5 cc per kg of a crude secretin preparation containing histamin was injected intravenously. Within one or 2 minutes after the secretin injection the gall bladder usually becomes tense, decreases in volume and the choledochus and hepatic ducts appear as bulging, rounded, green cords; the choledochus may be so distended that it is palpable. In 15 minutes approximately some liver lobes may show an irregular yellowish-green mottling on their surfaces. This mottling is generally most marked in the left anterior and posterior lobes and is least in the caudate lobe. At no time was any dye visible in the lymphatics of the gall bladder or the liver hilus. If the animal is now bled to death from the abdominal aorta, the dye may be demonstrated in the serum and the relatively bloodless liver now reveals the dye more clearly than before. If the liver substance is scraped away, scraping from the free border of a lobe toward the hilus, yellow hepatic ducts can be easily demonstrated. These yellowish ducts may often extend practically to the border of the lobe; not all hepatic ducts in any one lobe exhibit the dye, however, and their distribution is irregular.