THE HE PHYSIOLOGICAL consequences attending interruption of the hepatic artery in human beings are poorly understood. Traumatic or surgical injury of the hepatic artery alone is relatively infrequent; in only a few instances have detailed postligational studies of hepatic function been performed in man. If, as often occurs, there are associated injuries or the artery has been ligated during resection of contiguous structures, the subsequent events may be difficult to interpret, even if hepatic infarcts are demonstrated at necropsy.9
This paper reports a group of 11 adults in whom the hepatic artery was accidently interrupted. The accident occurred during cholecystectomy or during pancreaticoduodenal resection in each of four instances, and once during gastrectomy, nephrectomy, and repair of an aneurysm of the hepatic artery. Two patients had associated operative injuries to the common bile duct. The proper hepatic artery was ligated in five individuals, the common hepatic artery in three,