A study on the mechanism of acute hepatic necrosis following partial resection of the liver.

Endotoxin was injected intravenously into rats 48 hours after 70% hepatectomy. The remaining hepatic tissue demonstrated marked hemorrhagic necrosis in high frequency. However, hepatic lesions were slight in other groups such as the group in which heparin was administered simultaneously with injection of endotoxin 48 hours after 70% hepatectomy and the group in which endotoxin was injected 10 days after 70% hepatectomy. Defining of this marked necrosis to be a univisceral Shwartzman reaction in the liver may be justified from (i) conformity of experimental manipulations to those employed in the Shwartzman reaction, (ii) macroscopical as well as histological evidence, (iii) formation of microthrombi in hepatic lesions, (iv) inhibition of occurrence of the reaction by heparin, and (v) absence of any remarkable change in other organs. We concluded that the hepatic regenerative state might correspond theoretically to a state of preparedness for the Shwartzman reaction.