Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 72, Issue 5 1692-1700, Copyright © 1992 by American Physiological Society
Mechanical alteration of blood flow in smoked and unsmoked lung areas after inhalation injury
H. M. Loick, L. D. Traber, R. Tokyay, H. A. Linares, T. Prien and D. L. Traber
Department of Anesthesiology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.
The degree of pulmonary perfusion may have an important role in the
pathogenesis of inhalation injury. We studied this in sheep that had only
one lung exposed to smoke. The right lung and upper airway of 12
chronically instrumented sheep were insufflated with cotton smoke. In six
animals, the left pulmonary artery was occluded between 4 and 10 h after
smoke insufflation. All animals were studied for 24 h and then killed, and
lung tissue was harvested. The smoked as well as the air-insufflated lung
of all animals showed an increase in wet-to-dry weight ratio and tissue
conjugated dienes (products of lipid peroxidation). Neither the
intermittent blood flow increase to the smoked lung nor the simultaneous
blood flow reduction with a concomitant polymorphonuclear neutrophil
entrapment in the air-insufflated lung significantly affected the
histopathological outcome of the respective lung. We conclude that tissue
damage after inhalation injury cannot be diminished by increasing the flow
to smoked areas. Ischemia-reperfusion injury does not have a major role in
the lung damage seen with inhalation injury.
