EFFECTS OF A LARGE CLOSED BILATERAL PNEUMOTHORAX ON THORACIC LYMPH FLOW

Our experiments lead us to believe that an acute closed bilateral pneumothorax of considerable amount as induced in dogs causes not only a marked decrease in lymph flow from the thoracic cavity, but also greatly retards absorption of colloid material from the pleural spaces. If this be true in man, we deem it of prime importance to consider this fact in the treatment of intrathoracic disease.

METHODS  Our first concern was to assure ourselves that we were actually measuring approximately all the lymph issuing from the left thorax in the dogs on which we were working. This was by no means a simple matter. There were several complicating factors. In the first place, the locations, courses and anastomoses of the thoracic duct of the bronchomediastinal, jugular and subclavian lymph vessels are notoriously variable (fig. 1). Sometimes all these vessels on the left side united to form an ampulla continuous with