Using Oxygen Generating Materials for the Preservation of Skeletal Muscle Function & Viability in a Rodent Acute Ischemic Injury Model
Blunt force and penetration wounds can cause traumatic injury to soft tissue of varying types (i.e. skin, nerve, muscle) resulting in a decrease of tissue function and viability. A large percentage of these types of wounds are sustained to the extremities/limbs, not only in our nation’s combat operations of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, but also in the civilian sector in vehicle accidents and weapons-related incidents. While there is the immediate damage to tissue at the point of injury, there can also be the onset of ischemic injury due to the lack of blood flow to normal, healthy tissue downstream of the original injury. This healthy tissue still has the normal demands of nutrients and oxygen and when the normal transport of oxygen is interrupted, which can often be the case with soft tissue injuries, there is a relatively small window of time before the skeletal muscles’ immediate supply of oxygen is consumed and ischemic injury begins. If not treated soon enough, this ischemic injury can result in irrecoverable muscle function loss and tissue damage.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations