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Objective: To investigate the hemodynamic changes in the early stages of gunshot wound of dogs in seawater for exploring early treatment protocol., Method: Fourteen conventional Beagles models undergoing gunshot wound in seawater were used along with another 2 dogs receiving the wound on land to serve as control. After the dogs were rescued from the seawater, the respiration (R), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), central venous pressure (CVP), pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP), and cardiac output (CO) were measured continuously in the early stages of the wound (53.62+/-12.19 min following injury), followed by statistical analysis of the results., Results: Compared with the control group, the hemodynamic disturbance of the dogs receiving the wound in seawater was relatively severe during the first 15 min of the wound. The mortality tended to descend relevant to the position of the wounds, in the order of the head, chest, abdomen and limbs., Conclusions: Gunshot wound in seawater may cause severe hemodynamic changes, resulting in progressive dysfunction of circulation and high mortality rate. Early treatment should be targeted at hemodynamic stabilization in accordance to the characteristic changes during the early stages of the wound.

Objective: To investigate the changes in bacterial proliferation and the time of infection occurrence in dogs wounded by gunshot in seawater., Method: Fourteen canine models of gunshot wound in seawater were established, with another 2 dogs receiving the wound without seawater immersion serving as control. Gross observation and quantitative bacterial analysis were performed at 0, 6, 12 and 24 h after the injury respectively, and two dynamic models for the bacterial growth were set up on the basis of statistical analysis of the results., Results: Bacterial quantity in both of the two groups tended to increase with time, but at each time point after the injury, the seawater group had higher bacterial count than the other group. Within 6 h after the injury, the bacterial count reached the critical point for clinical infection in seawater group. The two bacterial growth dynamics models were (1) Y=9.12 x 10(3+0.247X) and (2) Y=1.35 x 10(3+0.227X) for the seawater group and land group respectively, with the variant X representing time after gunshot injury, and Y the bacterial count per gram tissue. Using the dynamic models, we found that to reach the same bacteria count, the land group needed 4 h more than the seawater group(4.2 h)., Conclusions: Bacterial proliferation is accelerated in the wounds in seawater to result in earlier infection onset with more severity, suggesting that early debridement within 4 h after the injury, complete washing of the wound and early administration of the antibiotics are necessary for the wound management.