Injection Into Pericardial Sac and Ligation of Coronary Artery of the Rat

ACTIVE interest in surgical methods by which deficient circulation in the coronary artery might be supported through collateral vessels was initated by Beck. This author, as a result of his experiences with the injection of diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite into the pericardial cavity of dogs 1 and of the observations of Hudson, Moritz and Wearn 2 and of Moritz, Hudson and Orgain 3 related to autopsy study of extracardiac circulation in human hearts, began the series of experiments leading to the operations on patients summarized by Beck 1 and by Feil. 4 In current surgical clinical efforts toward the development of extracardiac circulation, openings in the pericardium have been employed through which pectoral muscle or mediastinal fat, (Beck 5 ) or omentum (O'Shaughnessy 6 ) was brought to the heart. Many investigators have employed irritants to obliterate the pericardial sac by adhesions or to cause grafts to adhere. Beck 5 employed