“…The morphological changes affecting above all the tubuli contorti I and previously classified as 'osmotic nephro sis' are more correctly interpreted as signs of 'reabsorptive vacuoli zation' [111]. Such alterations are demonstrable following infusions of any plasma substitute currently available [64,65,73,78,79,80,98,105,111,163,197,216,225], yet they do not by themselves prove that functional damage has occurred [111,123]. More valid informa tion is obtained by functional studies, the results of which largely agree with clinical experience.…”