Relative Effectiveness of Certain Drugs Against Shock Produced in Mice From Tourniquet and Burn Trauma

¹ From the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

The therapeutic effectiveness of chlorpromazine, dibenamine, l-norepinephrine, 1-ethylsulfonyl-4-ethyl-piperazine hydrochloride, serotonin, ascorbic acid, human plasma cholinesterase and a bacterial polysaccharide (Piromen), has been studied in experimental tourniquet and burn shock in mice. Employing survival as an indication of therapeutic effect, simultaneous comparisons were made of the survival of groups of animals receiving these agents in saline and control groups receiving saline alone. Chlorpromazine pretreatment (8–20 mg/kg) produced reproducible positive effects on survival whether given alone or in conjunction with saline replacement therapy. Dibenamine pretreatment (5–25 mg/kg) produced positive effects on survival but this response was not always reproducible. No beneficial effect was demonstrable following administration of the remainder of these agents when compared to control groups given saline alone.