Doctors Claim Suspended Animation Success

Philoneist.com writes to tell us the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that US doctors have developed a process to induce hypothermia in trauma patients, shutting down their bodily functions for up to three hours. The process has been proven about 90% effective in trials with pigs and now the doctors would like the go ahead to test it on humans who would "probably die" under normal care.

Comments

Not quite suspended

[BWJones]

Well, it is not quite suspended animation as the subjects have been cooled to about 10C (50F), so some biological processes do indeed still occur. However, it is below the temperature for most coherent biological processes to continue to function. Furthermore, it has been known for some time that with certain traumas involving CNS or CNS function, cooling has been an effective means of controlling continued damage related to the CNS. For instance, in many CNS traumas such as stroke (ischemic or haemorrhagic), there are cascade reactions that follow the initial insult. These cascades involve Ca+2 mediated events that often result in or are the result of cellular apoptotic pathways being induced which causes further damage. Cooling of the body in a trauma unit tends to limit such damage for reasons that are not completely understood at the basic science level and the free radicals discussed in the article are not the only possibility for damage as there are many protein pumps whose physiology is dramatically altered by temperature and pH changes.

It's too bad that the NIH budget was cut this year (effectively below the rate of inflation) by the Whitehouse and further cut by Congress who, while managing to take care of their own salaries before going on vacation, could not work in the NIH budget to their schedule. As a result, many labs here in the US this year have had to slash this years budget by 12-20% which has a dramatic effect on the success of bioscience research such as this suspended animation work.

Re:Not quite suspended

[dr. loser]

It's too bad that the NIH budget was cut this year (effectively below the rate of inflation) by the Whitehouse and further cut by Congress who, while managing to take care of their own salaries before going on vacation, could not work in the NIH budget to their schedule. As a result, many labs here in the US this year have had to slash this years budget by 12-20% which has a dramatic effect on the success of bioscience research such as this suspended animation work.

Look at these budget numbers here.

While I have sympathy for the NIH, their overall budget was only cut by about 1%. Adding in inflation, that's about 4% or so in real dollars. Now, that's sucky, but NIH's budget has doubled over the last 10 years or so, in real dollars, and is around $25B/yr. If a 1% cut makes labs cut their budgets by 12-20%, those labs are either unlucky or poorly run.

By contrast, the NSF, which supports much of the rest of basic science research in the US, has had real $ cuts for the last several years, and has remained largely flat in real $ during the NIH doubling. NSF's total annual budget is about $5B/yr, or, in more interesting units, about three weeks of the Iraq conflict. So, as a physical scientist, forgive me if I don't get tooooo upset about NIH's situation.

Re:Not quite suspended

[BWJones]

but is this why it works as opposed to cryogenics? The fact that it's not quite frozen? IIRC, the reason cryogenics doesn't work, is that the freezing actually ruptures the cell membranes, am I correct?

You are partially correct. Cell membrane rupture due to ice crystal formation is certainly a huge part of the problem. However, it should be noted that there are organisms that manage to overcome this by including within their circulating fluids, an "anti-freeze" compound of sorts. Deep ocean cod are one type of organism that does this. The other issues have to do with genetic and protein integrity. Small molecules tolerate freezing quite well, but the larger a molecule is (peptide, protein), the more sensitive it is to large temperature alterations and freezing. If too much damage is done to proteins and/or genes, cells induce a termination sequence that essentially causes them to commit suicide (apoptosis).

Also, is the fact that the metabolic rate drops so much for every 10 degrees C the reason why the brain can "survive" without oxygen being pumped through via blood? If the metabolic rate slows, does it lessen the need for the brain to take in as much oxygen, and thus allowing it to be able to return to normal after this kind of procedure?

This is certainly a major part of why it is thought this technology works. It turns out that many metabolic processes have a cost. Oxygen is actually a little dangerous and the higher the partial pressure of oxygen, the greater the chance of damage by free radicals. Those pesky free electrons can cause all sorts of havoc and that is exactly why people should be careful with those air cleaners that "clean" through ozone generation. If oxygen is toxic, ozone is even more so.

Sorry if I sound stupid, but like I said, this stuff is beyond my knowledge, hence the questions.

Actually, the very act of asking questions demonstrates a degree of intelligence that is sorely lacking among far too many folks so, there are rarely any stupid questions and I am most happy to share any information I have here on Slashdot.

Re:What about going to heaven?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no soul, of course.

Drowning people in icy waters...

[IAAP]

I'm trying to remember where I've seen this, but IIRC, this has been done by accident when someone falls into icy waters. I think it was a kid who fell into an incy pond and was eventually rescued. Because of the temperature, he was fine. Appearently, it slowed his metabolism down enough that it didn't deplete all of the O2 in hsi blood.

I'm sifting through all of the Google hits from my search terms now.

Re:Drowning people in icy waters...

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up in Minnesota and there is very old a saying that goes something like:
"They ain't dead until they are warm and dead"

Especially with children falling through the ice.

Re:Drowning people in icy waters...

[Teddy_Roosevelt]

In northern parts of the U.S., wintertime drowning victims are often revived up to 40 minutes later if their body temperature dropped rapidly while drowning. Emergency room doctors have a rule for this: When it comes to cold water drownings, "You're not dead until you're warm and dead".

Interesting

[lxs]

This is interesting, but not quite new. I remember hearing about Soviet surgeons cooling down and effectively shutting down patients' bodies to perform open heart surgery without having to use a heart lung machine. (which were very hard to come by in the Soviet Union)

MItochondria

[realilskater]

If I remember my intro biology correctly they are inducing a state where the mitochondria are the only cells in the body producing any ATP. This has been seen before in people that have been chilled quickly by falling in an icy river for instance. All body functions cease but the mitochondria make enough energy to keep everything alive.

Re:90% effectiveness... what about the remaining 1

[blincoln]

Should we suppose that the remaining 10% died a horrible, cold death?

Even assuming the article weren't talking about terminal patients, death from hypothermia is one of the least horrible ways to go. Your higher brain functions stop working, you become very calm and stop feeling cold, and then you go to sleep.