Determination of the hepatic arterial blood flow and oxygen supply in man by clamping the hepatic artery during surgery.

The function of the hepatic artery has been extensively studied in animals (1-5). Great differences have been found from one species to another (6, 7), and our knowledge of the significance of the arterial blood supply to the human liver is limited mainly to observations of the late effect of occlusion of the hepatic artery (8) or of the portal vein (9, 10). As these events are followed by compensatory changes in the hepatic circulation (11, 12), no definite conclusions regarding the physiological role of the hepatic artery can be made on this basis. It might be expected that acute, transitory interruption of the blood flow through the hepatic artery minimizes this compensation and thus gives a clearer picture of the function of the artery.