Hepatic Arterial Supply Research Articles

Interruption of all arterial blood supply to the liver not compatible with life: Experimental study

Complete excision of the hepatic artery is well tolerated, if antibiotics are given post-operatively. Without antibiotics some dogs survive and some die of liver necrosis. The survival of animals without antibiotics depends on the presence of sufficient collateral circulation, mainly from the phrenic arteries. Sufficient collateral arterial circulation has to be actually available at the time of excision of the hepatic artery, or the liver has to be tided over the state of relative anoxia by antibiotics, until collateral circulation will have increased sufficiently to prevent liver necrosis. Complete excision of the hepatic artery and interruption of all collateral arterial circulation inevitably leads to death of the animal. Administration of cortisone seems to have no influence on this outcome. Although complete exclusion of the entire arterial blood supply to the liver will kill the animal, very little arterial blood is sufficient to prevent liver necrosis. This is probably due to the fact that a limited amount of oxygen is supplied to the liver by the portal blood, which is not sufficient to prevent necrosis after interruption of the entire hepatic arterial blood supply.