Toxic Factors in Veno‐occlusive Disease

Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome (Hepatic Veno-Occlusive Disease)

“…In the early 1960's, studies of the effects of ionizing radiation on mammalian tissues documented that the hepatic vasculature could be damaged by this mechanism, 3 in the absence of antecedent vascular thrombosis. 4,5 The most striking example of an obliterative venous lesion induced by irradiation was documented in humans with lung tumors receiving radiation treatment; both the lung vasculature and that of the dome of the liver that was included in the radiation field developed vascular obliteration, but not the remainder of the unexposed liver. 6 Shortly thereafter, induction of obliterative venopathy following heavy irradiation directly of the human liver for metastatic disease was reported in 12 patients receiving upper abdominal irradiation by the Stanford Linear Accelerator.…”