VCURES Researching the Body's Reaction to Prolonged Hemorrhage for U.S. Army

Basic scientists and clinicians in VCU's Reanimation Engineering Shock Center (VCURES) are researching the body's tolerance to prolonged hemorrhagic shock at a level never before studied. A $300,000 study funded by the U.S. Army's Combat Casualty Care Program and the Department of Defense is allowing VCURES to examine the effect of this severe shock state on how oxygen is delivered and used at the level of the microcirculation.

Members of this team include:

Roland Pittman, PhD: Principal Investigator and Professor of Physiology and Emergency Medicine
R. Wayne Barbee, PhD: Co-Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Physiology.
Kevin Ward, MD: Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Physiology
Rao Ivatury, MD: Professor and Chairman Division of Trauma Surgery
Ivo Torres Filho, MD, PhD: Department of Physiology
Luciano Torres, MS: Department of Physiology

Hemorrhage or blood loss leads to a decrease in oxygen delivery to tissues. Dr. Pittman explains that, despite over a century of study, there is still tremendous debate and knowledge gaps concerning how hemorrhage changes the ability to deliver and consume oxygen at the capillary and cellular level which is where injury, survival, or death of cells will be determined. Pittman is a recognized pioneer and leader in the field of microcirculatory oxygen transport and has one of the few laboratories in the world capable of examining hemorrhage from such a perspective.

Drs. Barbee and Ward point out that this research for the military is quite important because unlike the civilian world, wounded soldiers cannot always be rapidly transported to hospitals where inexhaustible supplies and resources exist for treatment. Wounded military personnel in hostile and remote environments may be subjected to prolonged states of hemorrhage because of delays in transport and limited access to the same degree of treatment options as exists in field hospitals. It thus becomes very important to understand the body's limitations at the microvascular and cellular level to states of prolonged and severe hemorrhage. This example is born out in the recent U.S. Operation Anaconda military event in a remote portion of Afghanistan in which wounded U.S. Special Forces personnel could not be evacuated for over 12 hours.

Dr. Ivatury, who directs the VCU Health System's Trauma Center, explains that basic research such as this will have profound implications on helping us to understand what are the best treatment options including the potential need to develop totally new therapies. The research will also help us in our efforts to improve the care of civilian victims of trauma.

Pittman emphasizes that examination of such a complex problem is significantly enhanced by the collaborative nature of VCURES, which brings together the powerful interaction of basic scientists and clinicians to obtain the fullest understanding of the problem and data that the research produces. For more information please contact Dr. Barbee at rwbarbee@hsc.vcu.edu.