Abdominal vagotomy does not modify endotoxic shock in rats.

Bilateral subdiaphragmatic vagotomy does not improve the clinical course nor the survival of Sprague-Dawley rats injected intravenously with E. coli lipopolysaccharide. These results show that whatever peripheral signals are elicited by endotoxin to generate the centrally mediated hypotensive response, they are not conveyed to the central nervous system by abdominal vagal afferent fibers.