Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 10, 2025
Development of a Neonatal Piglet Acute Lung Injury Model Recreating the Early Environment of Preterm Infant Lungs
Published on: October 31, 2025
Air distribution within the lungs after total liquid ventilation in a neonatal ovine model
Wendy See1, Christophe Morin1, Michaël Sage1
1Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Université de Sherbrooke, 3001, 12(e)Avenue Nord, Sherbrooke, QC, J1H 5H3, Canada.
Objective:
To gain insight into the total and regional lung aeration dynamics at the transition from total liquid ventilation (TLV) to conventional mechanical ventilation (GV).
Methods:
Neonatal lambs received either TLV for 4 h followed by GV (n = 15) or GV only (n = 11, controls). Monitoring was performed in the prone position with both videofluoroscopy and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for the first 10 min of the transition.
Results:
Total and regional end-expiratory lung volumes were stable throughout the transition (p < 0.05). The percentage of tidal volume, liquid and/or gaseous, distributed to the different regions was stable (p < 0.05). Radiopacity of the nondependent regions markedly decreased at end-expiration (p < 0.01), reflecting the progressive transition to a gaseous end-expiratory lung volume.
Conclusion:
Weaning to GV did not increase total or regional lung volumes, suggesting that the risk of overdistention was not increased. Residual perfluorocarbon in the dependent lung regions might account for the high O2 needs we observed in the first minutes of GV after TLV.
