A proposal for evaluation of treatment in experimental fat embolism

The efficiency of various treatments of clinical fat embolism is difficult to assess because of the wide range in the severity of the syndrome. Similarly, in experimental fat embolism, the efficiency of treatment has usually been based on studies employing non-fatal doses of fat. For use in studying experimental fat embolism, we propose a technique based on the comparison of LD50's of two groups of animals injected with fat: a control group versus a treated group. With this method, the efficiency of treatment is based on the survival of animals receiving larger doses of fat which is the ultimate goal in therapy (i.e., survival with an otherwise fatal dose of fat) and it also allows for the biological variability of animals in response to toxic injections of fat.