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SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1912
THE ANASTOMOSIS OF THE PORTAL VEIN AND THE VENA CAVA
Eck's fistula, involving the establishment surgically of a communication between the portal vein and the vena cava, is familiar as an experimental device for diverting the portal blood from the liver and thereby altering the activities of that organ. The difficulties of technic involved in the operation and the delicate manipulations which such blood-vessel anastomosis calls for have restricted the employment of this method of partial liver exclusion to a few skilled investigators. From year to year improvements and simplifications of the technic have brought this important surgical expedient within the range of an increasingly larger number of experimenters.1
Eck's original intention was to employ the operation for the palliation