Treatment of Decompression Sickness in Swine with Intravenous Perfluorocarbon Emulsion

Background: We examined an adjunctive treatment for severe decompression sickness (DCS) to be used when hyperbaric treatment is delayed or unavailable. Hypothesis: It has been hypothesized that intravenous perfluorocarbon (PFC) emulsion combined with 100% inspired O 2 would improve the outcome in severe DCS. Methods: Swine (n = 45) were compressed to 4.9 ATA on air for 22 h and brought directly to 1 ATA at 0.9 ATA · min ^-1. The animals were then randomized to three groups. The first group breathed ambient air, the second group breathed 100% O 2, and a third group received 6 ml · kg ^-1 of perflubron emulsion (Oxygen™) intravenously and breathed 100% O 2. Outcomes of neurological and cardiopulmonary DCS and death were recorded. Results: Animals that received PFC emulsion sustained less DCS (p < 0.01) than the other groups (53% vs. 93%). No animals in the PFC group sustained neurological DCS, which was present in 69% of the subjects in the other two groups. Conclusion: O 2 breathing postdive did not significantly reduce morbidity or mortality in this model. Postdive treatment with PFC emulsion and 100% O 2 decreased the incidence of DCS after nonstop decompression from saturation.

Duke Scholars

Author Andreas Fahlman Marine Science and Conservation