Hemostatic Vasoconstriction

  • Following trauma, blood vessels will vasoconstrict, thus increasing resistance to blood flow and in turn reducing loss of blood. The larger the degree of trauma to a vessel, the greater the degree of vasoconstriction; thus, sharply cut vessels will bleed substantially more than those bluntly crushed. A wide variety of mechanisms are responsible for traumatic vasoconstriction, including neurological factors, innate properties of vascular smooth muscle cells, as well as soluble factors released following trauma.