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Treatment of decompression sickness in swine with intravenous perfluorocarbon emulsion
David M Dromsky1, Bruce D Spiess, Andreas Fahlman
1Naval Medical Research Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Background:
We examined an adjunctive treatment for severe decompression sickness (DCS) to be used when hyperbaric treatment is delayed or unavailable.
Hypothesis:
It has been hypothesized that intravenous perfluorocarbon (PFC) emulsion combined with 100% inspired O2 would improve the outcome in severe DCS.
Methods:
Swine (n = 45) were compressed to 4.9 ATA on air for 22 h and brought directly to 1 ATA at 0.9 ATA min(-1). The animals were then randomized to three groups. The first group breathed ambient air, the second group breathed 100% O2, and a third group received 6 ml x kg(-1) of perflubron emulsion (Oxygent) intravenously and breathed 100% O2. Outcomes of neurological and cardiopulmonary DCS and death were recorded.
Results:
Animals that received PFC emulsion sustained less DCS (p < 0.01) than the other groups (53% vs. 93%). No animals in the PFC group sustained neurological DCS, which was present in 69% of the subjects in the other two groups.
Conclusion:
O2 breathing postdive did not significantly reduce morbidity or mortality in this model. Postdive treatment with PFC emulsion and 100% O2 decreased the incidence of DCS after nonstop decompression from saturation.
