Effects of Experimental Pulmonary Contusion on Respiratory Exchange and Lung Mechanics
- 1 May 1968
- journal article
- abstracts
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of Surgery
- Vol. 96 (5) , 723-730
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.1968.01330230031005
Abstract
CURRENT interest in chest injuries stems from both the casualties of the Southeast Asia conflict and the increasing numbers of survivors of major traffic accidents. Twenty-five percent of the 53,000 deaths from automobile accidents in 1965 were secondary to chest injuries, and in one fourth of these, pulmonary contusion played a major role. Pulmonary contusion alone carries an early mortality as high as 38%.1 Whether the term pulmonary contusion, "traumatic wet lung," or "blast injury to the lung" is used the clinical picture is essentially the same. Even with evidence of significant blunt trauma to the chest, patients often complain only of other injuries, and mild hemoptysis may be the only sign of lung contusion. Early radiographs of the chest are often normal. However, signs of increasing respiratory insufficiency, hypoxia, and pneumonitis develop characteristically within 24 to 36 hours. Blood gas analyses show progressive arterial oxygen desaturation and oftenThis publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Pulmonary Surface Activity in Induced Pulmonary Edema*Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1965
- Effect of intra-alveolar fluid on pulmonary surface tension propertiesJournal of Applied Physiology, 1964
- Surface activity of saline extracts from inflated and degassed normal lungsJournal of Applied Physiology, 1964