Cold and Frost Injuries - Rewarming Damages Biological, Angiological, and Clinical Aspects

This first manuscript on cold injuries was written in the period 1945-1946 as the result of personal experience gained in the winter months of the years 1941-1943 on the Northern Front in Russia and subsequent experimental work at the 'Chirurgische Uni- versitatsklinik' in Breslau (Wroclav) between 1943 and 1945. The intention at the time of writing was to present a summary of our experiences, so that they might serve as a basis for further scientific and clinical work. The manuscript has continually been revised and brought up to date. For purely external reasons publication has been delayed until today. Our experience of cold preservation and of increased resistance to oxygen deficiency in chilled tissue, acquired during the winter periods of the Second World War in Russia, served as a basis for the development of local cryanaesthesia and hibernation, which retroactively furthered to a considerable degree our knowledge of cold and frost injuries. See my monograph on the biology and clinical treatment of the cold injury and general loss of temperature, which appeared separately in 1966 and discusses all biological changes. A comprehensive report on cold injuries was written in English in 1952 at the instigation of Captain A. R. Behnke jr. USA (M.C.), (not available commercially).