Surface activity of pulmonary alveolar lipids from dogs subjected to hemorrhagic shock

Abstract

The authors suggest that a qualitative change in lecithin is responsible for the decrease in surface activity of dogs subjected to hemorrhagic shock. Phospholipid containing unsaturated fatty acids form an expanded film that can not be packed as closely as phospholipids containing only saturated fatty acids. So, the authors think that hemorrhagic shock might cause an increase in the ratio of lecithins with unsaturated to lecithins with saturated fatty acids. The consequent higher surface tension results in unstable, collapsing and atelectatic alveoli, that could account for the histological findings of the lungs in hemorrhagic shock.