Blood Gas Determinations in the Severely Wounded in Hemorrhagic Shock

Of late, there has been an increasing focus on the pulmonary dysfunction sometimes associated with hemorrhagic shock, septic states, and nonthoracic trauma.1,2Despite its usage by some, it is not at all clear that there is an entity in man deserving of the name, "shock lung." There are so many variables associated with the various poor perfusion states in humans that it seems foolhardy to group all the many possible changes in one organ system under one label. It is the intent of this paper not to enter the shock lung arena but simply to describe one indicator of pulmonary function, the arterial gas-tension pattern, in severely wounded battle casualties with no overt thoracic trauma. Attention is called to (1) the pattern of decline from and return toward normality; (2) morphine administration; (3) the mode and anatomic type of wounding; (4) the volume of resuscitative fluids; (5) the incidence