This survey is concerned with academic and clinical researches related to the problems of gas embolism in the human body which have commonly been regarded as a dreaded complication of a variety of surgical, therapeutic and diagnostic technics. The gas emboli may be found in the human body through surgery, decompression, transfusion of oxygenerated blood, and anesthesia, etc. The survey indicates that the cases so far investigated can be classified into those in the cardiovascular, muscalar, respiratory, and reproductive systems and other parts of the human body. Most of the existing literature deals with detection, identification, prevention and treatment procedures. No apparent effort has been made on the study of their dynamic behavior in the blood, interstitial fluids and organs where they are formed. An attempt is made to prompt further research in the field of embolus dynamics by describing what needs to be investigated.

This paper investigates the vibration characteristics of a small insoluble gas bubble in quiescent blood subject to harmonic pressure fluctuations close to the natural frequency. Pressure fluctuations of about 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 of the mean pressure are studied. Results are obtained for the pressure variation of the blood in the vicinity of the bubble and for the changes of the mean radius and surface acceleration of the bubble. The resonance curves are calculated. It is disclosed that the effect of viscosity on the response is rather important in blood.

Abatraet-Dynamic behavior of gas emboti in a quiescent liquid having the rheological properties of human or animal blood subject to pressure variations is studied. Consideration is given to step and sinusoidal changes in the system pressure. It is disclosed that in the study of dynamic behavior of gas emboli, a Newtonian model may be used to approximate the rheological behavior of human or animal blood in which the emboli are situated. The instantaneous embolus size in blood under pulsating pressure change may be determined by the equilibrium condition of instantaneous static pressures.