[Changes in cardiac output during the acute period of closed chest injury].

It has been established in dog experiments that conjunction of external blood loss (20 ml/kg) and injury to the costal frame produces a clear-cut decrease in the pumping function of the heart leading in part of the cases to acute heart failure and death of the animals. A progressive normalization of the pumping function and homeostasis recovery were recorded even in the absense of a specialized management, provided the adaptation reactions of the heart and body were on the whole preserved following the period of temporal depression of the myocardium.