[Visceral pathology in severe cranio-cerebral injuries and its pathogenetic mechanisms]

Pathological conditions of the internal organs and their innervation apparatus, including the limbic cortex, reticular formation, vegetative nuclei of the vagus nerves and spinal cord, peripheral ganglia, and intramural plexuses, in severe craniocerebral trauma were studied by the clinico-physiological, clinico-morphological, and neurohistological methods. The innervation apparatuses of the organs were also studied in experiments with a purposeful effect exerted on the hypothalamus. Peculiarities in the manifestation of visceral pathology in diencephalic and mesencephalobulbar forms of brain lesions were established. Histological changes in the tissues of the organs and in the structures forming the efferent and afferent links of the visceral reflex arc are described. The dependence of the structural disturbances in the central and peripheral components of the vegetative nervous system on hypothalamic affection was confirmed experimentally. Their dynamics was studied. The data of the investigations are discussed from the standpoint of the results of a complex of purposeful surgical and nonoperative treatment of craniocerebral trauma and its complications. Particular attention is focussed on the role of the neuro-conduction mechanism in the development of pathological conditions of the organs. The tissue changes are considered to be neurodystrophic.