[Investigations on combined injuries. 27th communication: immunity and antibody level in rabbits after whole-body irradiation and combined injuries (irradiation and traumatism) (author's transl)].

A combined traumatism adversely affects radiation disease. Therefore it was of interest to investigate what influence exerts a combined lesion on an existing immunity state. After whole-body irradiation alone as well as after combined irradiation and traumatism, no significant decrease of the antibody level was found in rabbits which had been infected with vaccina virus Elstree four weeks before the irradiation. The conclusion seems justified that patients submitted to a therapeutic immunosuppression have to be vaccinated against dangerous virus infections before and that a natural immunity or an immunity induced by vaccination cannot be destroyed even by an accident involving a high radiation exposure.