RESPONSE OF CANINE VEINS TO 3 TYPES OF ABDOMINAL-SURGERY - SCANNING AND TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPIC STUDY

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 83  (4) , 411-424
Abstract
Several studies suggest that events which initiate deep venous thrombosis (DVT) occur in the early postoperative or interoperative period. Since DVT is a complication of many surgical procedures, an understanding of the early events which initiate DVT would be of value. These events were studied in a canine surgical model. The early response of the endothelium and the adhesion of blood elements to the luminal surface of veins was compared following 3 types of surgical trauma. Dogs (16) were divided into 4 groups (control, splenectomy, hysterectomy, intestinal anastomoses) of 4 animals each. Blood was removed by perfusion 4 h after anesthesia alone (control dogs) or anesthesia and surgery (experimental dogs). Jugular veins were removed for scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Veins from control dogs were covered by a continuous sheet of endothelial cells with some pseudopod formation and minor deposition and adhesion of cellular and noncellular material on the luminal surface. The response of veins from experimental animals varied considerably in the 3 types of surgery studied. The least-affected veins were those from splenectomized animals. These veins had patchy areas of cellular and noncellular material (10 veins) and occasional microthrombi deposited on the luminal surface (1 vein). The veins from dogs subjected to hysterectomy exhibited greater endothelial alteration, including crater formation (2 veins) and more cellular adhesion, particularly erythrocytes (8 veins). The veins from intestinal anastomoses animals exhibited the greatest response. In these animals there was considerable cellular and noncellular material deposited on the luminal surface of 6 veins from 3 of the 4 animals. The cellular material consisted primarily of erythrocytes and leukocytes, and the noncellular material was an amorphous granular substance. The other 2 veins were similar in appearance to the control veins. These findings support the concept that deep venous thrombosis can begin in the interoperative or early postoperative period and therapeutic intervention in the preoperative and interoperative periods might help prevent subsequent DVT.