Acute ischemia-reperfusion injury in the canine hindlimb

A canine arterial ligation preparation was used to produce whole limb ischemia-reperfusion injury. Alterations in the distribution of arterial blood flow as well as the morphology of skeletal muscle ischemia-reperfusion have not been investigated completely in this setting. Five anesthetized adult mongrel dogs underwent multiple infrarenal aortic branch ligations; one randomly selected hindlimb was subjected to six hours of ischemia and two hours of reperfusion, while the opposite limb served as control. Distribution of arterial blood flow was analyzed by injection of radiolabeled microspheres. Electromagnetically measured femoral arterial blood flow was 92 +/- 10 ml/min during control, and increased significantly (p less than 0.05) to 254 +/- 94 ml/min during reperfusion. Flow distribution to skin, muscle, and bone was 9 +/- 2%, 68 +/- 7%, and 8 +/- 1% during control, and 7 +/- 3%, 65 +/- 8%, and 9 +/- 4% after reperfusion, which did not represent significant changes. Arteriovenous shunting was 11 +/- 4% during control, and was 13 +/- 5% during reperfusion, which was not significantly different. Subcellular injury in the ischemic and reperfused hindlimb was demonstrated by light and electron microscopy. These findings further characterize whole limb ischemia-reperfusion injury in the canine hindlimb.