On the pathophysiology of intestinal ischemic injury. Clinical review

Intestinal ischemia induces a spectrum of injury from relatively subtle changes in mucosal capillary permeability to gross transmural infarction depending on severity and duration. There is basically two events that can induce intestinal tissue injury in ischemic states, namely hypoxia during the ischemic period and generation of oxygen free radicals following ischemia at reperfusion. In this paper we review data indicating that there is a continuum of injury from the least to the most severe, and by approaching the problem from this perspective we have, in addition, tentatively defined the roles of the two mechanisms in the development of various degrees of intestinal ischemic tissue injury.