The effects of hemorrhagic shock on the heart.

Abstract

It has become abundantly clear that shock produced by hemorrhage, as well as by other means, is a multisystem disease involving cells of many organs (1). It is apparent, therefore, that no one organ system need be implicated as the “weak link” which, if strengthened, would prevent irreversibility after transfusion since there are many alternative vicious cycles that can lead to death. However, it is our contention that the heart is significantly damaged during the course of a shock episode, and that this damage is severe enough to lead to a functional defect. There is impressive physiologic and anatomic evidence that this probably is a major contributing factor to irreversibility in most instances.KeywordsHemorrhagic ShockMyocardial ContractilityHypovolemic ShockSympathetic StimulationContractile ElementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.