Diet and trauma.

Before passing to the principal aspect of this subject it is necessary to consider first the train of reactions which are known to set in when a person is subjected to physical trauma, and then to appreciate their bearing on dietary requirements. It is also important to note the influence of the patient's physiological condition at the time of trauma on the subsequent sequence of events. In cases where the trauma has been produced by surgical intent there has generally been a period of bed rest beforehand with some degree of loss of substance through disuse, and in certain cases partial inanition may have been present for some time. In this group the trauma is induced under anaesthesia. In accidental trauma the nutritive state of the organism is generally satisfactory but there is no protection from painful stimuli at the time of, and immediately following, the injury, apart from that which may result from vasovagal collapse.