Adrenal ablation by retrograde venous ethanol injection: an ineffective and dangerous procedure.

Venous injection of ethanol was used to ablate the left adrenal gland in nine monkeys. Severe hypertension and tachycardia occurred in all animals not pretreated with alpha- or beta-adrenergic blockers. On postmortem examination the left adrenal glands were reduced in size but still retained some normal tissue. This procedure, while technically simple, is neither effective nor safe.