Experimental strangulation obstruction: Evaluation of the toxicity factor with special reference to in vivo blood changes

Lengths of rabbit distal ileum measuring 15 cm. were strangulated and obstructed by tying the two ends together with umbilical tape. Peritoneal fluid (SOF) was collected from the animals at the time of their death and its effects studied in 24 recipient animals. Hemolytic clostridia and E. coli were the commonest organisms isolated from this fluid. Raw SOF, when injected in doses of 4 ml. per kilogram of body weight, produced leukopenia with relative increase of lymphocytes, hemoconcentration, and a slight rise of serum potassium in recipient animals and was lethal for them. Similar changes were produced when antibiotics were used or when the fluid had been filtered through a Seitz filter to exclude bacteria, but in the antibiotic-protected animals the survival time was significantly increased. Heating of the sterile filtrate, however, eliminated the lethal properties of the fluid and produced polymorphonuclear leukocytosis in recipient animals. It is thus concluded that exotoxins are the major lethal factors of strangulation obstruction fluid and are responsible for the lethal outcome in experimental strangulation obstruction in rabbits.