EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THE NERVOUS FACTOR IN SHOCK INDUCED BY MUSCLE TRAUMA IN NORMAL DOGS

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Abstract
Traumatization of all faces of the thigh muscles by a light rawhide mallet led to fatal shock in 33 of 37 control dogs. Complete section of the spinal cord of 13 animals immediately before trauma did not prevent fatal shock in 12 of the cases. This failure to prevent death is not related to the trauma involved in the cord section itself, since 4 more dogs, with cord sections made 3 days previous to the experiment, also died in shock. Thus of a total of 17 traumatized dogs with completely severed cords, but one survived. Likewise, cutting the major nerves to the legs prior to trauma, did not prevent death in 11 dogs of a total series of 12. However, proper anesthetization of the same nerves with 4% procaine but without preliminary exposure of the nerve, prevented shock from appearing in 10 of 11 animals. Cordotomy, involving bilateral removal of certain areas, followed by trauma, indicated that afferent nociceptive stimuli from the legs, tending to precipitate shock, are apparently transmitted by fibers contained chiefly in the ventrolateral cord region. These fibers may be the dorsal spinothalamic or pain tracts. Section of the cord except for the ventral or D area, followed by trauma, prevented fatal shock in 29 of 34 cases. When the ventral cord or D area is sectioned, shock induced by muscle trauma can not be prevented even though the pain tracts may have been removed, or the pain stimuli blocked by procaine anesthesia. Removal of this area is believed to explain the sensitivity to shock of animals with either complete spinal cord or leg nerve section. Thus, two factors apparently contribute to the initiation of shock following the type of muscle trauma employed: a local loss of whole blood into the traumatized areas, and a nervous factor.

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