INVESTIGATIONS begun in September 1943 (Lowry1) demonstrated the practicability of controlling bleeding in abdominal viscera in animals by the application of synthetic adhesives. A large percentage of rabbits in these early experiments made uneventful recoveries after pie-shaped sections of their livers had been freshly extirpated and the ensuing gap enclosed with analogues of scotch tape.® Animals reoperated on at various intervals in which a cellophane-Buna S adhesive was used showed a considerable amount of surrounding tissue reaction, but tapes composed of a synthetic resin facing on a polyvinyl alcohol film, while not completely absorbed, were found to cause very little tissue reaction. The polyvinyl alcohol-synthetic resin combination also appeared most effective in controlling bleeding.
A more detailed study (Lowry2) in which polyvinyl alcohol film and synthetic resins (acrylic esters) were implanted separately within the liver, spleen, abdomen and subcutaneous tissues of a large number of rats, mice and