Intravenous oxygen microbubbles during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a mechanistic simulation study

Oxygen polymeric microbubbles (oPMB) deliver intravenous gaseous oxygen and improved survival in swine asphyxial cardiac arrest. Whether a candidate dose could support oxygenation in adult emergencies is unknown.

We built a computer simulation of oxygen transport in the body and applied it to two clinical scenarios: CPR-supported cardiac arrest (low blood flow, suppressed oxygen use, inadequate pulmonary oxygenation, e.g. ineffective bag-valve-mask ventilation) and a contrasting difficult-airway scenario (apnoeic, pre-oxygenated patient with spontaneous circulation). The intervention was 1 L of 50% oPMB foam over 10 minutes. The outcomes were cumulative time above an illustrative cerebral oxygen-delivery threshold (0.5 mL O₂/100 g/min; a surrogate) in arrest, and time to arterial saturation below 80%, in the airway.

In the arrest simulation, oPMB increased median cumulative time above the threshold from 4.7 to 11.8 minutes (median gain 6.9; 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0.0 to 10.8; a ≥2-minute gain in 93% of simulations), compared to its control (CPR-generated low flow with inadequate pulmonary oxygenation, no oPMB). In the difficult-airway simulation, the median desaturation delay was 39 seconds (95% UI 1 to 105), compared to its control (without oPMB). Benefit was conditional on inadequate pulmonary oxygenation and redundant with effective ventilation.

In this simulation model, oPMB only modestly extended the apnoeic window in the difficult-airway scenario. In contrast, during CPR-supported cardiac arrest with inadequate pulmonary oxygenation, oPMB may prolong cerebral oxygen delivery: a surrogate, not an improvement in survival or neurological outcome. Safety testing in an adult large-animal arrest model is warranted.