PARTIAL LIQUID VENTILATION PROTECTS LUNG DURING RESUSCITATION FROM SHOCK

Preliminary animal experience with partial liquid ventilation (PLV) su ggests that this therapy may diminish neutrophil invasion and capillar y leak during acute lung injury. We sought to confirm these findings i n a model of shock-induced lung injury. Sixty anesthetized rats were s tudied. After hemorrhage to an arterial pressure of 25 mmHg for 45 min , animals were resuscitated with blood and saline and treated with gas ventilation alone or with 5 ml/kg of intratracheally administered per flubron. Myeloperoxidase activity was used to measure lung neutrophil content. A permeability index (the bronchoalveolar-to-blood ratio of I -125-labeled albumin activity) quantified alveolar leak. Injury caused an increase in myeloperoxidase that was reversed by PLV (injury = 0.8 37 +/- 0.452, PLV = 0.257 +/- 0.165; P < 0.01). Capillary permeability also increased with hemorrhage, with a strong trend toward improvemen t in the PLV group (permeability indexes: injury = 0.094 +/- 0.102, PL V = 0.045 +/- 0.045; 95% confidence interval for injury - PLV: -0.024, 0.1219). We conclude that PLV is associated with a decrease in pulmon ary neutrophil accumulation and a trend toward decreased capillary lea k after hemorrhagic shock.