Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify whether or not body armor would protect the body of a swine model using a blast tube built at National Defense Medical College, which is the first such blast tube in Japan. Seventeen pigs were divided into two groups: the body armor group and the non-body armor group. Under intravenous anesthesia, the pigs were tightly fixed in the left lateral position on a table and exposed from the back neck to the upper lumbar back to the blast wave and wind with or without body armor, with the driving pressure of the blast tube set to 3.0 MPa. When the surviving and dead pigs were compared, blood gas analyses revealed significant differences in PaO2, PaCO2, and pH in the super-early phase. All pigs injured by the blast wave and wind had lung hemorrhage. All 6 animals in the body armor group and 6 of the 11 animals in the control group survived for 3 hours after injury. Respiratory arrest immediately after exposure to the blast wave was considered to influence the mortality in our pig model. Body armor may have a beneficial effect in protecting against respiratory arrest immediately after an explosion.
Highlights
In recent years, terrorism-related bombings have become more frequent in the world, and the number of casualties from explosions has increased significantly.[2,19,29,31,32] More than sixty thousand US soldiers have been killed or injured during wartime in Iraq and Afghanistan.[20]
Explosion-related injuries are classified into primary blast injury induced by the shock wave, secondary blast injury from penetrating wound caused by flying debris, tertiary blast injury caused by blunt trauma from the blast wind, and quaternary blast injury caused by burns.[5,7,14,21,25,27]
Fatal damage leading to immediate death is considered to occur due to shock-lung, respiratory arrest, or circulatory failure induced by neurological reflexes such as severe vagal nerve reflex.[11,15]
Summary
Terrorism-related bombings have become more frequent in the world, and the number of casualties from explosions has increased significantly.[2,19,29,31,32] More than sixty thousand US soldiers have been killed or injured during wartime in Iraq and Afghanistan.[20]. It is necessary for us to consider the means of protecting Japan Self Defense Force personnel who have the potential to be exposed to explosions during overseas missions. Explosion-related injuries are classified into primary blast injury induced by the shock wave, secondary blast injury from penetrating wound caused by flying debris, tertiary blast injury caused by blunt trauma from the blast wind, and quaternary blast injury caused by burns.[5,7,14,21,25,27] Among these injuries, fatal damage leading to immediate death is considered to occur due to shock-lung, respiratory arrest, or circulatory failure induced by neurological reflexes such as severe vagal nerve reflex.[11,15]
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