Perivascular sympathectomy does not remove adrenergic nerves from distal vessels. The effect of various denervations on the rat saphenous bundle: a histochemical study.

It has been claimed earlier that perivascular sympathectomy removes distal adrenergic innervation of the vessels. Based on preliminary results suggesting the contrary, the purpose of this work was to reconsider the denervation effect of perivascular sympathectomy. We operated on 40 rats using different denervation methods mainly to test the effects of perivascular sympathectomy on the distal saphenous vessels of the leg. The operations were performed on the right leg, while the left leg was used as a control. Samples were taken 2 days after the operations for glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence examination for the histochemical demonstration of adrenergic nerves. Perivascular sympathectomy seemed to remove the adrenergic innervation only from the operated segment of the vessel. There was a short segment of diminished innervation a few millimeters in length just distal to the perivascular sympathectomy while the more distal adrenergic nerves around the vessels appeared to be normal. When the saphenous nerve was cut the adrenergic innervation seemed to disappear for 1 cm and to continue to be diminished at the medial malleolus site. Lumbar sympathectomy did not seem to remove the distal adrenergic nerves around the vessels, but caused only a slight decrease in innervation. It can be concluded that the peripheral adrenergic innervation is apparently normal after perivascular sympathectomy and that the operation does not have the previously assumed denervation effects.