RT Journal
A1 Orozco H, Mercado M
T1 RIse and downfall of the empire of portal hypertension surgery
JF Archives of Surgery
JO Archives of Surgery
YR 2007
FD March 1
VO 142
IS 3
SP 219
OP 221
DO 10.1001/archsurg.142.3.219
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.142.3.219
AB 
Nobody, not even Eck in 1877,1 thought that ligation of the portal vein in a dog with a communication previously done between this vein and the inferior vena cava would result in the dog not dying despite the ligation if the venous blood flow was shunted before it (Eck operated on 8 dogs and 7 died). Meanwhile, Lautenbach2 in the United States described the death of dogs with the ligation but without derivation; both Lautenbach and Eck were doing research on ascitis, but Eck was the one who demonstrated “without intention” the importance of free blood flow by doing that shunt, the importance of the portal blood flow to the liver, and the importance of collateral circulation. At the same time, he opened the road for an excellent surgical treatment to hemorrhagic portal hypertension that would not be used until more than 50 years later.3