DANGER OF INTRAVENOUS INJECTION OF PROTEIN SOLUTIONS AFTER SUDDEN LOSS OF RENAL TISSUE

Abstract

IN cases of shock there may be a sudden loss of effective renal tissue, because for a time the kidney does not get enough blood; more sustained deprivation sometimes occurs after transfusion reactions; there are instances of anatomic as well as functional loss, as when part of the kidney is destroyed by shell fragments, and in glomerular nephritis and symmetric necrosis of the cortex the majority of the nephrons in a short space of time may become functionless and many may be irrevocably destroyed. For each of these situations there is a specific treatment dependent on knowledge of the causative mechanism, but in all, except the most transitory instances of functional loss, we believe that the work demanded from the remaining renal tissue should be reduced. The work of the kidney consists almost wholly in the reabsorption of water from a concentrated solution of urea in the tubules into a