Experimental Chemotherapy of Burns and Shock. IV. Production of Traumatic Shock in Mice. V. Therapy with Mouse Serum and Sodium Salts

In previous studies (1) by exposure of mice to a standardized burn, a technique was developed whereby shock could be produced in a large number of animals in a short time. This permitted a degree of controlled experimentation not hitherto possible in this field, and when certain factors such as age, environmental temperature, and diet were kept uniform a satisfactory degree of reproducibility was obtained. With this procedure the evaluation of local and systemic therapy on the mortality from shock was carried out. Of particular interest was the fact that more than 90 percent of animals could be saved from shock fatal to the controls by the administration of isotonic solutions of sodium salts in amounts equal to 10 to 15 percent of body weight.2 That this was a sodium effect was shown in that all sodium salts behaved equally, that hypertonic solutions were less effective, that glucose solutions and water were ineffective, and that the curative action could be antagonized by potassium. Results with mouse blood serum and human serum albumin suggested that their effects could be correlated with their sodium content. It was desired to test whether these findings would apply in traumatic shock. After trying several forms of trauma in mice, a technique was developed based upon the tourniquet method previously employed by other workers (2, 3, 4, 5). The changes which occur in the blood and circulation upon release of the tourniquet have been shown by these workers to be characteristic of the shock syndrome.