[Treatment of liver rupture in an experiment]

The authors investigated in experiments on rabbits healing of liver incisions under various circumstances: spontaneous healing, liver incisions treated by suture by application of the tissue glue Tissucol, the collagenous haemostatic felt Collastypt combined with one stitch. Healing was followed up after several time intervals. From normal, i.e. the group of spontaneous healing, differed the groups treated by Tissucol and Collastypt where marked encapsulating fibrous tissue reactions round the necroses on the wound margins were found with numerous eosinophils as a transient phenomenon. The final result (with a maximum of cca two months) was adequate in all groups--as a rule a thin fibrous tissue scar with few remnants of atrophic hepatic trabeculae. In the treatment of small injuries it seems best to use the collagenous haemostatic Collastypt. In the treatment of sutures in rare instances a large number of leucocytes was found in the area of the necrosis and stitches, perhaps as result of contamination of the wound or sewing material.