What constitutes "Internal Injury??"

[johnwandering]

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I got a question wrong that specifically asked for what the skin DOESN'T do.
I was contemplating between "respiration" and "protects from internal injury"


I chose "protects from internal injury," because
1.) The human skin does participate in limited respiration (1% of CO2 is released)
2.) I felt this was more the job of the skeletal system




I was wondering, what constitutes and internal injury?

 

[Geekchick921]

What were the other choices and what was the correct answer? I think this is one of those situations where the "right" answer is just the one that's more correct than some of the others and you may have been overthinking it.

 

[MCAT4life]

man I don't know how many MCAT takers would know that the skin would release 1% CO2. So this is probably a case of knowing too much for your own good. If I were to pick I would think of the skin as protection (this is listed in almost every manual btw) since it does include the subcutaneous layer of fat (shock absorber) that it would cushion minor blows against the body. Help protecting internal organs this way.

internal injuries can be anything thats not on the surface of your body, in EMT school they taught us a lot of this stuff. Like if you have a sunburn/abrasion/laceration across the skin thats more external, but if you have a broken bone/ punctured organ thats more internal.

 

[johnwandering]

Oh, the right answer was respiration (skin doesn't do respiration)
The other two choices were obviously right and not relevant to this question


I couldn't get it figured~ On one hand, I KNEW that skin dealt respiration (but it was a minute amount, i didn't know if the test makers would qualify it)
On the other hand, I felt that the skin didn't protect from internal injuries (any damage that would be internal doesn't seem likely to be stopped by the skin at all)
So I chose internal injuries
=(



I guess this is just one of those questions I should flip a coin on~
BTW, the test centers don't have any problems with that, right??
=)

 

[Bacchus]

Your skin is the barrier to the outside world. It protects your insides. It prevents bacteria from entering...if they get in through a cut the skin has macrophages to prevent infection.

 

[cycloethane]

Haha, I made the same mistake. I remember this story about this guy whose whole body was painted silver for a circus show. He died because he could not release that CO2... Or so the story goes. Reputable university source: "The skin can be used as a respiratory surface but it does not have much surface area compared to lungs or gills. Animals that rely on their skin as a respiratory organ are small and either have low metabolic rates or they also have lungs or gills." So, we were right. But to pick the best answer, it's gotta be respiration.

 

[SephirothXR]

If you have internal bleeding, the skin ensures the blood doesn't leave the body. I'm sure there are more examples but I also got this one wrong. Another classic case of where you can know exactly what the skin does and its functions but the MCAT brings in something totally different than what your textbooks/review books said and makes you consider it. I looked at TPR and EK and never found "internal injury" under skin. But in the end the AAMC will have some random source that they can pinpoint it to........

 

[coffeebythelake]

Haha, I made the same mistake. I remember this story about this guy whose whole body was painted silver for a circus show. He died because he could not release that CO2... Or so the story goes.

no...

 

[MD Odyssey]

no...

Someone has been watching too many classic James Bond movies.