Effect upon the Biliary Tract of Sectioning the Splanchnic Nerves

Recently the first case of sectioning the nerves to the choledochoduodenal junction in a patient was reported.1 The reasons for believing that this procedure would not prove effective in relaxing the human sphincter of Oddi have already been set forth.2 To test this more thoroughly, selection has been made of a laboratory animal in which inhibitory reflexes from the gut tract to the gall bladder have already been demonstrated3 and in which the detailed distribution of nerves to the choledocho-duodenal junction has been worked out4—namely the cat.At laparotomy, the following procedures were carried out upon approximately 30 cats: (1) various autonomic nerves in the abdomen were severed (or doubly ligated); (2) insulated electrodes were sewed to the caecum by a flap of the rubber tube through which the enamelled wires were brought to the laparotomy wound; (3) the gall bladder was filled with lipiodol (Whitaker method). Some 15 hours later, by which time the animals had fully recovered, the latter were fed a...