The Ligation of Coronary Arteries With Electrocardiographic Study

This article is based on a study of sixty-six dogs in which known myocardial lesions had been produced by the ligation of definite branches of the coronary arteries of the heart. While the experiments were made with the primary object of determining the change in the electrocardiograms brought about by these ligations, other results, anatomic and pathologic, are deemed worthy of brief mention. Method. —Dogs were anesthetized with ether and electrocardiograms taken. The chest was surgically prepared and a tracheal cannula introduced for positive pressure. An incision was made parallel to the sternum at about the left costosternal margin, from the third to the sixth rib, then to the left in the fifth interspace. The flap, including the deep muscle layer down to the ribs, was dissected back. Blunt scissors were pushed through the intercostal muscle in the fifth interspace into the pleural cavity, and this incision was carried from