Threshold of thermal trauma and influence of adrenal cortical and posterior pituitary extracts on the capillary and chemical changes; an experimental study.

Abstract

WITHIN the few years prior to the entry of the United States into World War II there was a growing conviction that adrenal cortical extract was beneficial in the treatment of burn shock. From 1933, when Swingle and others 1 first called attention to the similarity of adrenal insufficiency and shock, there appeared numerous reports of the efficacy of both adrenal cortical extract and desoxycorticosterone acetate in various forms of experimental and clinical shock. Among others, Scudder and Elliott 2 reported benefit from the use of adrenal cortical extract in the care of victims of the Hindenberg dirigible disaster who suffered from shock after burns, and Rhoads, Wolff and Lee 3 expressed the belief that they had observed a plasma-sparing effect of the extract in burned patients. The point of view that adrenal cortical therapy was beneficial in shock seemed plausible, particularly when the shock was due to burns, since