[Changes in several indices of gas exchange in dogs during the initial stage of Cannon's traumatic shock]

In experiments reproducing traumatic shock according to Cannon on 35 dogs it was shown that metabolic acidosis developed in shock against the background of sharply elevated oxgen consumption at the very beginning of injury, when the arterial pressure exceeds considerably the inital level. In traumatic shock the brain is under the most favourable conditions of gas exchange and the skeletal musculature of the extremities--under the worst ones. It was concluded that in severe trauma, despite the strain of respiratory and cardiovascular system function the tissues of the brain and the skeletal muscles failed to obtain an adequate O2 quantity because of their sharply increases needs in oxygen, as well as of hemodynamic disturbances.