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From: muller@moore.seas.upenn.edu (Bill Muller)
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Breathing liquid?
Summary: Yes, it works.
Message-ID: <18365@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 89 17:50:48 GMT
References: <CMM.0.88.630065705.bfu@goll.uio.no>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: muller@moore.seas.upenn.edu (Bill Muller)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 29

In article <CMM.0.88.630065705.bfu@goll.uio.no> Thomas Gramstad <bfu> writes:
>Sometimes in science fiction etc. one encounters the idea of
>deep divers breathing liquid instead of gas (the last example
>is in the movie The Abyss).  What is the rationale for this
>idea, if any?  Is it at all possible for a human being to
>breathe and obtain oxygen from a liquid?
>

The September 8 issue of _Science_ magazine has a short article on this in the
"Research News" section.  The use of perfluorocarbon fluid for oxygen delivery
has recently been done for the first time in humans by Dr. Thomas Shaffer of 
Temple, though this had been done in animals in 1966.  Perfluorocarbons can
carry more dissolved oxygen than air, and can deliver this oxygen at lower 
pressures than, for example, a mechanical ventilator would require.  Thus,
they are being investigated for use in premature infants, whose lungs are
underdeveloped and cannot handle the high pressures of mechanical ventilation.
The technique, as applied in the human test, does not fill the lung with fluid 
for more than about 15 minutes; the fluid is only used at this point to expand
the underdeveloped alveoli (which have inadequate surfactant), and the low
surface tension of the perfluorocarbon keeps these alveoli inflated when the
lung is drained.
	There are other potential applications for the technique; I suggest you
find the article if you want more information.  By the way, liquid breathing
apparatus designed by Dr. Shaffer was cited explicitly in the novelizaton of
"The Abyss".

Bill Muller (muller@moore.seas.upenn.edu)
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Bioengineering