No abstract

A technique is described in which acute hepatic failure may be uniformly induced in pigs using a combination of oral phenobarbitone pretreatment and 2-hour interruption of hepatic arterial blood supply followed by intragastric carbon tetrachloride. This results in deep hepatic coma over a narrowly predictable time span and death within 12–52 h. Amino acid levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid obtained 24 h after the induction of hepatic failure were similar to those reported in human and experimental encephalopathy.

No abstract