[The microcirculatory disorders in deafferentation of the eye]

Microcirculatory disorders occurring in the eye of rats in the early period after deafferentation were studied. The blood flow in the iridic vessels became slower and permeability of the eye vessels was disturbed in the first hours and minutes after retrobulbar injection of the anesthetic trimecaine. Similar changes were encountered in division of the trigeminal nerve branches and in electrocoagulation of the sensory nucleus of the trigeminal nerve as well as in venous congestion induced by applying a ligature to the veins of the eyeball. All these procedures led to corneal edema and development of an inflammatory process. Eye sympathectomy caused neither disorders of vascular permeability nor keratitis. Changes of vascular permeability and tissue edema occurring in the early periods after deafferentation are probably among the causes of the subsequent dystrophic disorders in the peripheral tissue.