Role of abdominal viscera in the hyperkalemia produced by hypercapnia

¹ Department of Physiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The changes in plasma potassium concentration during and following breathing of high CO₂ mixtures were determined in dogs subjected to 1) enterectomy, 2) pancreatectomy, 3) hepatectomy, and 4) abdominal evisceration. Plasma potassium increased during the hypercapnia and increased still further in the immediate posthypercapnic period. The direction of these changes was the same as those in the control animals although some quantitative differences were observed. It was concluded that the hyperkalemia was not supplied by the liver, pancreas, or stomach and intestines since it appears in the absence of any or all of these organs.