THE EFFECT of traumatic shock on the levels attained in the circulating blood and tissue fluids by various antibiotics after their oral, intramuscular, or intravenous administration is of obvious importance in the management of wounded persons. Antibiotic agents are generally of value in the localization, control, or attenuation of infections developing in contaminated wounds, but their effect necessarily depends upon adequate function of the organs involved in their absorption and excretion. The profound depression of all vital activities occurring during traumatic shock could conceivably have a marked effect on the absorption and maintenance of adequate blood levels of the antibiotics. Little information is available, however, regarding the influence of shock on the blood levels obtained.
A series of experiments has been conducted to measure the antibiotic blood levels obtained through gastrointestinal, intramuscular, and intravenous administration of antibiotics in anesthetized dogs kept in a state of shock produced by traumatizing a