Experimental study of survival time and mortality in war injuries complicated by seawater immersion / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the mortality and survival time of war injuries, followed by seawater immersion. Methods Animal models of injuries including open chest injury, open abdominal injury, burn, hemorrhagic shock, were reproduced. The animals were divided into two groups control group consisting simple injury without seawater immersion, and seawater immersion group consisting similar injuries followed by seawater immersion. The survival time of animals of the two groups were recorded. Results The mean survival time of the animals with open chest injury and open abdominal injury followed by seawater immersion was 45 minutes and 162 minutes, respectively. The mortality of 30% Ⅱ degree burn was 50% after seawater immersion for 4 hours, while it was 6% without seawater immersion. The mortality of moderate hemorrhagic shock with four-hour with seawater immersion was 90%, while all the animals survived without seawater immersion. Conclusions The experimental study showed that the mortality rate was significantly raised and the survival time significantly shortened when open wounds were exposed to seawater for a certain period of time. Hypertonicity of the seawater with high sodium content, and low temperature of seawater might play important roles in producing various pathophysiological changes which contributed to early death of the animals.