VASCULAR CHANGES IN THE LATERAL GENICULATE BODY FOLLOWING EXTIRPATION OF THE VISUAL CORTEX

Abstract

Wounds, foreign bodies, dead cells and other injurious agents usually induce reactions in a bodily tissue in which blood vessels with their contents play a leading role. Small blood vessels, including capillaries, are dilated and have an increased flow of blood. The permeability of the walls of the vessels is heightened, so that liquid from the blood penetrates the crevices of the surrounding tissue and leukocytes pass through the endothelial wall and approach—together with histogenous wandering cells—the affected region. Capillaries increase in number through budding. All these changes imply a protective and defense mechanism to clear the site of injury and start repair. 1 This holds in a different degree for all kinds of bodily tissues. Some neurologists (von Monakow, 2 Campbell 3 and others) consider that the brain tissue is an outstanding exception to this general rule. The disturbing effect of an injury to the brain is supposed to