Effect of Hypothermia upon Induced Bacteremia.

Abstract

1. Dogs cooled to 23°C 6 or 12 hours and then rewarmed, maintained sterility of blood during cooling and following rewarming, suggesting that the gastrointestinal tract and other bacterial foci maintained their integrity for at least 12 hours of hypothermia. 2. Hypothermic and normothermic animals intravenously inoculated with bacterial suspension were able to rid blood within 6 hours of 99% of the injected pathogens. Within 24 hours after injection of cultures of A. aerogenes and E. coli, normothermic animals cleared the blood completely of bacteria while dogs maintained hypothermic did not. However, within 12-24 hours after rewarming only 1 of 11 hypothermic animals had a bacteremia. 3. Inability to survive following prolonged hypothermia does not seem to be related to bacteremia.