Partial liquid ventilation protects lung during resuscitation from shock

Preliminary animal experience with partial liquid ventilation (PLV) suggests that this therapy may diminish neutrophil invasion and capillary leak during acute lung injury. We sought to confirm these findings in a model of shock-induced lung injury. Sixty anesthetized rats were studied. After hemorrhage to an arterial pressure of 25 mmHg for 45 min, animals were resuscitated with blood and saline and treated with gas ventilation alone or with 5 ml/kg of intratracheally administered perflubron. Myeloperoxidase activity was used to measure lung neutrophil content. A permeability index (the bronchoalveolar-to-blood ratio of 125I-labeled albumin activity) quantified alveolar leak. Injury caused an increase in myeloperoxidase that was reversed by PLV (injury = 0.837 +/- 0.452, PLV = 0.257 +/- 0.165; P < 0.01). Capillary permeability also increased with hemorrhage, with a strong trend toward improvement in the PLV group (permeability indexes: injury = 0.094 +/- 0.102, PLV = 0.045 +/- 0.045; 95% confidence interval for injury--PLV: -0.024, 0.1219). We conclude that PLV is associated with a decrease in pulmonary neutrophil accumulation and a trend toward decreased capillary leak after hemorrhagic shock.