[Prevention of acute hepatic failure after "90%" hepatectomy by portal branch ligation in rats].

In this study, ligation of portal branches feeding 90% liver mass was performed in rats. After the ligation, 10% liver mass with portal blood perfusion underwent a progressive hypertrophy. It gained weight against the control by about 5-fold at the 14th day. The measurement of incorporation rate of H3-thymidine showed that the DNA synthesis increased rapidly in the liver tissue keeping portal blood supply. It reached a peak at 24 hours and retumed to normal at 7 days after the ligation. The ligated liver lobes under-went an atrophy gradually. With the pretreatment of such portal branch ligation 2 weeks before, 80% rats survived from the resection of ligated liver lobes which composed of 90% preceding liver mass. In the control group of sham portal branch ligation, all rats died within a short period of time after 90% hepatectomy. This study demonstrated that a secondary extended hepatectomy following the ligation of portal branches feeding 90% liver mass could prevent acute hepatic failure induced by primary 90% hepatectomy in rats.