Liquid ventilation with perfluorocarbons facilitates resumption of spontaneous circulation in a swine cardiac arrest model.

Background: Induced external hypothermia during ventricular fibrillation (VF) improves resuscitation outcomes. Our objectives were twofold (1) to determine if very rapid hypothermia could be achieved by intrapulmonary administration of cold perfluorocarbons (PFC), thereby using the lungs as a vehicle for targeted cardiopulmonary hypothermia, and (2) to determine if this improved resuscitation success.

Methods: Part 1: Nine female swine underwent static intrapulmonary instillation of cold perfluorocarbons (PFC) during electrically induced VF. Part 2: Thirty-three female swine in VF were immediately ventilated via total liquid ventilation (TLV) with pre-oxygenated cold PFC (-15 degrees C) or warm PFC (33 degrees C), while control swine received no ventilation during VF. All swine in both Parts 1 and 2 underwent VF arrest for 11 min, then defibrillation, ventilation and closed chest massage until resumption of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). The endpoint was continued spontaneous circulation for 1h without pharmacologic support.

Results: Static intrapulmonary instillation of cold PFC achieved rapid cardiopulmonary hypothermia; pulmonary artery (PA) temperature of 33.5+/-0.2 degrees C was achieved by 10 min. Nine of 9 achieved ROSC. Hypothermia was achieved faster using TLV: at 6 min VF, cold TLV temperature was 32.9+/-0.4 degrees C vs. cold static instillation temperature 34.3+/-0.2 degrees C. Nine of 11 cold TLV swine achieved ROSC for 1h vs. 3 of 11 control swine (p=0.03). Warm PFC also appeared to be beneficial, with a trend toward greater achievement of ROSC than control (ROSC; warm PFC 8 of 11 vs. control 3 of 11, p=0.09).

Conclusion: Targeted cardiopulmonary intra-arrest moderate hypothermia was achieved rapidly by static intrapulmonary administration of cold PFC and more rapidly by total liquid ventilation with cold PFC; resumption of spontaneous circulation was facilitated. Warm PFC showed a trend toward facilitating ROSC.