Contributions to the biology of the hypoxic liver. Note II. Histologic, electron microscopic and biochemical aspects in the course of open heart surgery under extracorporeal circulation.

A study was carried out on the evolution of histological and ultrastructural lesions of liver fragments harvested at different time intervals in the course of extracorporeal circulation in 62 patients operated for acquired and congenital heart disease, as well as that of serologic tests, pre-, intra- and postoperatively up to seven days. Morphologically, it is only the ultrastructural examination that detects the accentuation of preexisting hypoxic lesions within the framework of a state of "controlled shock", noting especially accentuated dilation of the endoplasmic reticulum, lysosomal activation, mitochondrial lesions and a tendency to ribosomal and glycogenic depletion. The lesions did not exceed the limits of reversibility, excepting the cases with advanced heart failure and cardiac cirrhosis. Lending support to these data is the decrease of proteinemia and the dynamics of LDH, SDH, G1DH, gamma GT and transaminases increase after 24 h, then fall to normal values within seven days.