MEDizzy - A 25-year-old man who has been in a motorcycle wreck enters

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The Circulation (III)

A 25-year-old man who has been in a motorcycle wreck enters the emergency department. His clothes are very bloody, and his arterial pressure is decreased to 70/40. His heart rate is 120, and his respiratory rate is 30/min. Which therapy would the physician recommend?

ExplanationThis patient has obviously lost a lot of blood because of the motorcycle wreck. The most advantageous therapy is to replace what was lost in the accident. This would be whole blood, which is much superior to a plasma infusion because the patient is also receiving red blood cells that have a much superior oxygen-carrying capacity than the plasma component of blood. Sympathetic nerves are firing very rapidly in this condition, and an infusion of a sympathomimetic agent would be of little advantage.