In order to differentiate the effects of swelling and
anoxia on kidney function, a canine experimental model is used. After complete liberation of kidneys and their vessels from adjacent tissues, each kidney is submitted to 10 min of hypotonic
flushing, or to 60 min of normothermic
anoxia. Swelling resulting from these two procedures are equal and permit the study of the consequences of
anoxia independently from swelling.
Edema is determined by water content and renal blood flow is measured. Kidney function is studied by time of restoration of urinary flow,
creatinine, and
inulin clearances and fractional water reabsorption. The results show that nonanoxic
edema is much less damaging than anoxic
edema and consequently that anoxic injury is not the simple consequence of spatial disruption of cell architecture. Since many works have shown the beneficial effects of intracellular
organ preservation solutions and consequently that
anoxia is better tolerated in the absence of swelling, it can be deduced that
injuries induced by
anoxia and by swelling are cumulative and that the efficiency of intracellular solutions cannot be attributed solely to the preventive effect on swelling, considered as lethal for the cell.