Peritoneal oxygenation of normoxic and hypoxic dogs

The ability of an oxygen saturated fluorocarbon, perfluorodecalin (C10F18), to raise the arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) of anesthetized dogs, was tested by peritoneal lavage in normoxic and hypoxic animals. While breathing room air, five of six animals showed an increased PaO2 of 5-10 torr above reference values. In cases of mild hypoxia, increases of 5-25 torr were observed. No increase in PaO2 was seen when hypoxia was severe. A mathematical model was used to analyze the data and determine a transport coefficient (k). Calculated k values were 1.18 +/- 0.151 ml O2 STPD per minute for normoxic animals and 0.91 +/- 0.180 ml O2 STPD per minute for hypoxic animals, respectively. The estimated transport coefficients are small and indicate that physiologically significant amounts of O2 cannot be delivered by the proposed method under the experimental conditions used. The low k values were attributed to long diffusion distances and small effective surface areas in the abdominal cavity.