Irradiation injury to the ureter and surgical tolerance. An experimental study.

An attempt was made to produce damage to the ureter of the dog with external irradiation in the high therapeutic ranges in the absence of surgery or cancer. No significant changes were apparent on excretory urography and only minimal changes were seen on histologic study. In another series of dogs, one ureter was reimplanted before the administration of maximal irradiation and the other ureter was reimplanted after the irradiation. The reimplanted ureter tolerated later irradiation very well. The postirradiated ureter tolerated similar surgery very poorly.