Arterial Gas Emboli After Blast Injury 1

Abstract

Summary

An implanted ultrasonic cuff has been used to monitor arterial emboli in a dog subjected to near-lethal air blast. Large numbers of emboli, apparently small air bubbles entering the blood from severely contused lungs, passed through a carotid artery at times during 0.5 hr after injury, the period during which such events were monitored during the present study. The dog recovered and showed no gross clinical or pathologic evidence of embolic damage, suggesting that arterial gas emboli are likely after sublethal lung contusion and that appropriate therapy could help to keep the bubbles “silent.”