[Electron microscopic study of the blood in suppurative wounds complicated by sepsis and bacterial shock]

Electron microscopic examinations of the white blood in 7 patients with purulent wounds and clinical manifestations of sepsis and in 1 patient with purulent wounds complicated by the development of bacterial shock as well as of the ultrastructure of bacteria isolated from the wound content of the patients were carried out. The controls consisted of electron microscopic examinations of the blood from two donors. The blood of patients with sepsis was found to contain free microbial cells and those phagocytized by neutrophilic leukocytes. Free bacteria formed large colonies enveloped in a strong membrane in the blood. Some leukocyte-phagocytized microbes underwent lysis, the others, surrounded by an envelope were located in large vacuoles in the blood cell cytoplasm (incomplete phagocytosis). Numerous microbial cells both free and phagocytized were particularly frequently found in bacterial shock accompanied by the clinical picture of most acute septicemia.