Faecal peritonitis causes oedema and neuronal injury in pig cerebral cortex

Encephalopathy is a common complication of sepsis. However, little is known about the morphological changes that occur in the brain during sepsis. Fae cal peritonitis was induced in pigs that were killed 8 h later and frontal cortex samples were taken immediately after death. The tissue was investiga ted using light and electron microscopy and compared with frontal cortex sa mples taken from sham-operated controls. Septic pigs had 49.5% more perimic rovessel oedema than sham pigs. However, the tight junctions between cerebr al microvessel endothelial cells appeared morphologically intact in both se ptic and sham pigs. Sepsis also resulted in neuronal injury, disruption of astrocytic end-feet and swollen, rounded erythrocytes. These morphological changes may be sufficient to underlie the clinical features seen in septic encephalopathy.