Blood Volume Studies in Wounded Animals

¹ From the Department of Hematology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C.

When severe macerating wounds of the thigh were produced in goats by high explosive the decrease in measurable blood volume could not be accounted for by external blood loss. Transfusions of red blood cells did not increase the circulating red cell volume by the amount transfused. It appears that red cells are extravasated, and once extravasated, they are then destroyed. The hemoglobin of the lost red cells is only gradually disposed of as bilirubin, which suggests that there may be a limit to the rate at which hemoglobin can be degraded. Serial measurements of red cell volume in unwounded animals indicated that transfusion in excess of the normal red cell volume results in the loss of circulating red cells. These lost cells may also be extravasated.