The effect of acute salt loads on the urinary sodium output of normotensive and hypertensive patients before and after surgery.

Under the stress of acute hypertonic salt loading, hypertensives excrete sodium at a much greater rate than normotensives. Immediately following splanchnicectomy, sodium excretion is markedly reduced in the hypertensive, but after several months it returns toward preoperative levels. There appears to be a rough correlation between maximum rate of sodium excretion and mean blood pressure. Normotensives by contrast exhibit insignificant differences preand postoperatively.