Pulmonary blood flow does not redistribute in dogs with reposition from supine to left lateral position

Recent studies have questioned the classical gravitational model of pulmonary perfusion. Because the lateral position is commonly used during surgery, the authors studied the redistribution of pulmonary blood flow in the left lateral decubitus position using a high spatial resolution technique.

Distributions of pulmonary blood flow were measured using intravenously injected 15-microm diameter radioactive-labeled microspheres in eight halothane-anesthetized dogs, which were studied in the supine and left lateral decubitus positions in random order. Lungs flushed free of blood were air-dried at total lung capacity and sectioned into 1,498-2,396 (1.7 cm3) pieces per animal. Radioactivity was measured by a gamma counter, and signals were corrected for piece weight and normalized to mean flow.

Blood flow to the dependent left lung did not increase, and blood flow to the nondependent right lung did not decrease in the lateral position. The left lung received 39.3 +/-7.0% and 39.2+/-8.8% (mean +/- SD) of perfusion in the supine and left lateral positions, respectively. Detailed assessment of the spatial distributions of pulmonary blood flow revealed the lack of a gravitational gradient of blood flow in the lateral position. The distributions of blood flow did not differ in the supine and left lateral decubitus positions.

Perfusion to each lung did not change with movement from the supine to the left lateral position. These findings contradict the prediction of increased dependent lung and decreased nondependent lung blood flow based on the gravitational model. It was concluded that the distribution of blood flow in the lateral position in dogs is dominated by pulmonary vascular structure.