Shock-related injury of pancreatic islets of Langerhans in newborn and young infants.

Variable degrees of injury of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans, with sparing of the acinar pancreas, were observed in three infants (age range, 1 day to 3 months) who died of profound shock. The duration of shock varied from 19 to 48 hours. In two of the infants, the shock stemmed from hypovolemia; in the remaining infant, the shock followed blood loss, sepsis, and heart failure. The islet lesions were devoid of cellular infiltrates, hemorrhage, and fibrin thrombi. Tissue manifestations of shock included acute renal tubular necrosis, massive hepatic centrilobular necrosis, ischemic enteropathy, and "shock" lung. Study of pancreatic sections from 30 children (age range, 13 hours to 15 years) with clinical and/or morphologic evidence of shock showed no additional instances of islet injury. These findings suggest that pancreatic islets in the young may be vulnerable to shock-induced ischemia. Studies are in progress in an animal model to test this hypothesis.