Shock in patients treated in the General Clinic of Internal Diseases, the Medical Academy in Lublin in the years 1979-1988.

: Shock is, as before, among one of the most serious pathologic states threatening patient's life in spite of considerable progress in its treatment in the recent ten years. The immediate causes of shock may be a decrease of cardiac output, increase of volume of vascular bed or interaction of them both. Decrease of cardiac output may result from defective heart ability to contract or decrease venous blood flow to the heart. Decrease of stroke volume and cardiac output result in defective blood flow through all tissues and lead to metabolic acidosis, whose intensity is decisive for prognosis.