Effect of Intravenous Administration of Oxygen on Shock in Dogs and in Human Beings

THAT anoxemia is an important factor in the pathogenesis of traumatic shock has long been recognized.1Experimental2and clinical3investigations have yielded encouraging results in combating such shock by the inhalation of high concentrations (100 per cent commercial) of oxygen. Boothby and his collaborators3expressed the opinion that the use of such high concentrations of oxygen resulted in a significantly greater degree of recovery than when the usual 95 per cent oxygen and 5 per cent carbon dioxide inhalant mixture was employed. The additional 5 per cent oxygen yielded an increase of 2.2 cc. of oxygen per hundred cubic centimeters of blood. Small though the increase be it causes a rise in oxygen saturation of capillary and venous blood in cases of shock from 20 per cent saturation to 33 per cent saturation. The oxygen partial pressure rises from 14 to 21 mm., with an equivalent