Effects of Obstructive Jaundice on Respiratory Dysfunctions due to Acute Peritonitis

Gorou Ohmori, Isao Hamamoto, Satoshi Tanaka

First Department of Surgery, Kagawa Medical School

In order to examine the effects of obstructive jaundice on respiratory dysfunctions induced from acute peritonitis, change of dead space rate (VD/VT) (VD: dead space volume. VT: single ventilation volume) was measured. We also studied the ameliorative effects of dobutamine hydrochloride on the pulmonary dysfunction. 30 adult male mongrel dogs were separated into four groups. Ligation of the common bile duct was performed followed by making diffuse peritonitis after one week (Group I). Next 10 dogs were underwent only the operation to make the peritonitis (Group II). VD/VT of these dogs were continuously monitored for 6 hours. To see the effect of dobutamine, 8 µg/kg/min. of dobutamine were administrated to half of Group I (Group III) or Group II dogs (Group IV) after onset of peritonitis. Peritonitis for 6 hours showed significant increase to 42.0±13.0% in Group I, whereas that of Group II dogs was kept stable at 3.2±8.7% (p<0.001). Administration of dobutamine significantly suppressed the increase of VD/VT Group III dogs (p<0.005). It was concluded that when peritonitis is associated with obstructive jaundice, VD/VT increases in the early phase of the pulmonary dysfunction and is a useful indicator of the dysfunction. In addition, dobutamine administration is effective for the treatment of pulmonary dysfunction due to obstructive jaundice and peritonitis.

Key words
physiological dead space rate, obstructive jaundice, acute peritonitis

Reprint requests
Gorou Ohmori First Department of Surgery, Kagawa Medical School
1750-1 Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa, 761-07 JAPAN

Accepted
May 11, 1993

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