ADRENALECTOMY 



153 



left in an angle between the vena cava and the right renal 

 vein. It is partially covered by the vena cava. 



The above description makes it evident why adrenalectomy 

 is so unsatisfactory in the rabbit. Many of the animals die 

 within 24 hours due undoubtedly to the shock of the opera- 

 tion. Many never recover from the anesthetic. 



In a series of rabbits which recovered from the operation the 

 following survival periods were noted by Firor and Grollman 198 

 after a one-stage operation under ether: 



Ninety per cent of the animals survived 11 days or less. In 

 these, there were the usual manifestations of adrenal in- 

 sufficiency, — progressive loss of weight, subnormal tempera- 

 ture, anorexia, and a liability to suffer death from apparently 

 minor causes. The act of catching the rabbit would often 

 throw it into convulsions similar to those which follow an 

 overdose of insulin. All the rabbits were autopsied and 

 serial sections made of suspicious residues in the vicinity 

 of the normal site of the adrenal glands. In the rabbits sur- 

 viving 9 days or less no adrenal tissue was demonstrable. In 

 the rabbit surviving 11 days no adrenal tissue was seen at 

 autopsy, but microscopic examination revealed a small piece 

 of typical adrenal cortex. The rabbit surviving 18 days had a 

 small bit of adrenal tissue in the peritoneal fascia. In the 

 rabbits surviving 65 and 68 days a glandular mass the size of 

 a normal adrenal gland was found. These had not been present 

 at the first operation and represented, therefore, an active 

 regeneration of tissue left at operation. In the rabbit surviving 

 120 days a well formed cylindrical mass of cortical tissue about 

 3 mm. in diameter and 6 mm. long was found at autopsy in the 



