[Effect of drainage of the thoracic duct with lymphosorption on the lymphocyte number in the blood and lymph].

Having studied the amount and quality of lymphocytes in the blood and lymph of 48 patients the authors have established that loss of great amount of small lymphocytes during the three-days drainage of the thoracic lymph duct was completely compensated at the expense of reserve populations. Drainage prolonged up to 5-6 days results in exhaustion of the circulating pool of small lymphocytes and changes in immune reactivity. The latter however are not followed by a sharply decreased antibacterial resistance of the organism.