Traumatic Arterial Spasm

That the arteries undergo spasmodic contraction, when subjected to trauma or concussional violence, is now a well-recognized fact. Called by the French surgeons Stupeui Arterialleand by the German surgeons ' Kroh's Arterial Spasm', the phenomenon was described by Makins (1919) towards the end ot World War I. During World War II, several remarkable instances of the condition were cited from diverse theatres of war. In a series of 567 cases of battle casualties treated in an Indian general hospital, the phenomenon was observed in twenty-seven cases pr roughly in 5 per cent of the cases. Actual lncidence may be higher as by the time these casualties arrived at the hospital, some of the wilder forms of the arterial spasm had already subsided.