On the question of spontaneous gangrene in young subjects. Oberthus (Revue de chir., 1927, No. 9)

Oberthus, referring to the etiology of gangrene, notes a particular predisposition of the Jewish race to it. Anatomical substrate of gangrene is degenerative changes of arterial walls expressed in destruction of the inner elastic layer and intimal loosening by granulation tissue with subsequent obliteration of the artery, in the absence of any traces of thrombosis. He considers Oppel's theory untenable, because: a) the fact of hyperadrenalineemia in gangrene is not proved (blood of healthy people may have the same vasoconstrictive properties, and gangrene was sometimes observed in people with one adrenal gland); b) blood changes (hyperglycemia, increased number of erythrocytes, etc.) in this disease fluctuate from time to time. ) in this disease fluctuate in the range close to normal and uncharacteristic; c) in the removed adrenal glands are found hypertrophy of the cortical layer, but not of the brain layer, which produces adrenaline.