COMPARISON OF NECROSIS AND FIBROTIC REPAIR AFTER ETHANOL INJECTION BETWEEN NORMAL AND CIRRHOTIC LIVERS

To study the effects of percutaneous ethanol injection therapy on live rs, we investigated necrotic changes after ethanol injection and fibro tic changes during the repair process in cirrhotic livers in compariso n with normal livers, Male rats were treated with oral doses of 3'-met hyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene and thioacetamide to produce liver cirrh osis. Both control animals and cirrhotic animals were injected with 0. 2 mi of absolute ethanol into livers. Histological samples were cut se rially, and the maximum areas of necrosis and fibrosis were measured u ntil 28 days after the injection. Although the maximum area of necrosi s was not different between cirrhotic livers and control rivers, the a verage fibrotic ratio [(maximum fibrotic area/maximum necrotic area maximum fibrotic area) x 100] was 64% in control livers (n = 9) and 40 % in cirrhotic livers (n = 9; p < 0.05). The fibrotic repair process a fter ethanol injection seems to be impaired in cirrhotic livers as com pared with normal livers.