ETIOLOGY OF EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION INJURY

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Abstract
The results of over 600 expts. involving 350 rats are reported. All animals survived explosive decompression to 21 mm. Hg, even when repeated as many as 20 times in as many minutes, when re-compression was immediate (< 1 sec). Survival was found to be associated with time under reduced pressure rather than with pressure change per se. The end results of N2 breathing were found to parallel those of explosive decompression in both incidence of pulmonary lesions and lethal time. Young rats (10-30 g.) survived N2 breathing as well as anoxia following explosive decompression for periods much in excess of those tolerated by adult animals. Aeroemboli were never observed in the vessels (jugular, mesenteric, renal, femoral) of rats maintained until death at 21 mm. Hg following explosive decompression. Injns. of autonomic drugs (atropine, mecholyl) significantly reduced mortality in rats exposed to a standard decompression invariably lethal to untreated animals. Anesthesia by means of ether, evipal, or pentothal permitted all rats tested to survive an explosive decompression uniformly fatal to control animals. On the basis of these and earlier expts. it is suggested that the duration of post-decompression anoxia represents the major factor in determining the outcome of an explosive decompression.
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