Experimental study of sensitization to catecholamines after lumbar sympathectomy

In a first time, the authors have shown a real supersensitivity to the action of catecholamines after lumbar sympathectomy in dog. Then, they have established a protocol which can be applied to the exploration of those phenomena in arteritic patients. Same doses of epinephrine and norepinephrine (which correspond to a slight hypercatecholamine blood level under stress) are injected intravenously, comparatively before and after lumbar sympathectomy. The modifications of E.C.G., arterial blood pressure and rheographic record, caused by those injections seem to prove the existence of a sensitization which is still lasting 4 months after the operation, but which does not seem to be noxious. Therefore, this sensitization generates compensating reflex reactions to arterial hypertension, leading to a favorable increase of the blood flow in the denervated territories.