Lymphatic function in the liver after hepatic venous pressure elevation.

The liver lymphatic system plays an important role in removing excess fluid from the hepatic tissue. A complete analysis of the liver lymphatic system would be difficult. However, we used a simple circuit-analysis technique to represent the intrahepatic portion of the lymph system as a single pressure source (PL) pushing lymph through a single resistance (RL). Liver lymphatic vessels were cannulated in nine halothane-anesthetized dogs. The lymphatic vessel outflow pressure (PO) was varied by raising the outflow end of the cannula. Lymph flow from the cannula (QL) decreased linearly with PO, and we calculated RL as -delta PO/delta QL and PL as the extrapolated PO at which QL = 0. At base line, PL = 8.5 +/- 2.9 cmH2O, and RL = 0.05 +/- 0.03 cmH2O.min/microliter. After we increased inferior vena caval pressure from 5.8 +/- 2.7 to 15.2 +/- 2.5 cmH2O, PL increased significantly to 13.7 +/- 3.4 cmH2O, and RL decreased to 0.02 +/- 0.02 cmH2O.min/microliter (P less than 0.05). The results indicate that increases in QL occur because the effective pressure pushing lymph from the liver (PL) increases, and the effective resistance of the intrahepatic lymph vessels (RL) decreases.