AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION INJURY

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cats and rats were subjected to 495 explosive decompressions to simulated altitudes up to 80,000 ft. Resultant injury was confined to those structures containing gas. No correlation was found between the wt. of animals decompressed and the extent of injury. Fatalities did not occur at simulated altitudes below 35,000 ft. In fatal explosive decompression, both heart rate and blood pressure declined rapidly until death. No unique criteria were detected in the ECG of such animals[long dash]those phenomena observed being characteristic of any dying heart. Surviving animals exhibited a fall in both heart rate and blood pressure from which recovery was complete before recompression had reached the 10,000-ft. level. In "group" decompressions marked variations in pathology were observed, tentatively explained on the basis of the varying phases of respiration at the instant of decompression. The "protection" of rats by means of tightly taping the thorax and abdomen prior to decompression was interpreted as supporting this hypothesis. The rate of decompression appeared to constitute a factor determining the degree of damage sustained as well as in affecting the mortality rate of rats explosively decompressed.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: