Microcirculatory changes in the mucous membrane of the retrobuccal pouch during experimental traumatic shock in hamsters

Abstract

Substantial disturbances of the microcirculation in the mucous membrane of the retrobuccal pouch were observed in acute experiments on hamsters in which severe shock was induced by standardized mechanical trauma to the thigh. All the animals died within 24 h of such trauma. If the animals died not less than 1 h after trauma the microcirculatory changes were definitely phasic in character; in particular, a phase of temporary relative adaptation and stabilization of the peripheral circulation was observed in these animals, followed inevitably by a phase of decompensation and a terminal phase ending in death. In shock proceeding rapidly to a lethal termination within 1 h, no definite phasic pattern of the microcirculatory changes was observed, but all the indices worsened more or less rapidly. Unlike most other investigators, the authors saw no marked intravascular aggregation of red cells in these experiments.