[Innervation of the autotransplanted lung. Experimental study].

The authors investigated the changes of the nerve-structures after autotransplantation of a lung or the lobe of a lung as well as the moment and the kind of recovery of the innervation after the operation. 186 autotransplantations of the left lung or of one lobe of a lung was done by experiments on healthy mixed breed dogs. The longest time of observation was 9 years. The authors found out that there developed changes in the nervetracts in the wall of the main bronchus and the lung artery after autotransplantation. The majority of the nerve-cells in the ganglions of the bronchuswall in the autotransplanted lung succumbs an abundant destruction at several times after the operation. However the structure of a part of the nerve fibres, distal of the bronchus- and the lung artery anastomoses, will remain simultaneously. The regeneration of the nerve structures in the wall of the bronchus and of the lung artery, distal of the anastomoses, already begins in the first weeks after the autotransplantation and continues for 4 to 6 months. The authors could not find any convincing morphologic findings for the utter regeneration of the peripheric nerve-structures in the lung parenchyma. This circumstance can be the cause for the absence of the Hering-Breuer reflex for a long time after the autotransplantation.