Shock Due to Freezing

Abstract

It has been shown by Blalock, 1 Underbill 2 and the writer 3 that in shock due to severe burns there is a loss of fluid from the blood stream into the burned tissues. It is considered by these authors that this loss of fluid is responsible for a large part of the shock resultant to burns. The amount of fluid shift into the tissues has been measured by burning one lateral half of an animal and then after careful sagittal bisection, comparing the weight of the burned and unburned sides; 1 by weighing the fluid expressed from the water-logged burned tissues; 2 and by burning one lateral half of an animal placed on a balanced apparatus and measuring the amount of displacement caused by the increase in weight of the burned side. 3

Accompanying this loss of fluid there is a marked blood concentration and in shock in human beings resulting from severe burns, Underhill 4 found that hemoglobin readings as high as 209% indicate a marked blood concentration. Blalock found that in experimental burns the hemoglobin may rise to 130%. The writer 3 found that in experimental burns the hemoglobin may rise to as high as 162% (Sahli: 17 gm. per 100 cc. = 100%) and the hematocrit reading to 72.

It was thought that the severe general effects of freezing a portion of the body might be due to a similar leakage of fluid from the blood stream into the frozen or thawing tissues with a resultant blood concentration. Solid carbon dioxide was applied to about one-fourth of the body surface of 10 completely anesthetized dogs and left in place for about an hour, at the end of which time the underlying tissues were deeply frozen.