Abdominal sepsis is frequently the cause of severe pulmonary dysfunction. Via the thoracic duct, the lung is the first organ exposed to gut-derived mediators released into the mesenteric lymph.
Department of General and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital of Tuebingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Strasse 3, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. joerg.glatzle@med.uni-tuebingen.de
