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The normal adult human body contains approximately 5 L of circulating blood volume (based on a body weight of 70 kg).1 This blood volume is how oxygen is delivered to the vital organs and metabolic by-products are transported out of the body; it is essential to normal daily homeostatic operation of the body. Small variations in the volume of circulating blood volume are generally harmless, and the effects are self-limiting, such as the blood loss associated with a nosebleed or a minor laceration that does not involve a large blood vessel.
However, life-threatening hemorrhage can occur when the body is subjected to a significant mechanism of injury, either blunt or penetrating, that causes damage to a large vascular structure.
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