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Scientists Keep Rabbits Alive With Oxygen Microparticle Injections
ananyo writes "Rabbits with blocked windpipes have been kept alive for up to 15 minutes without a single breath, after researchers injected oxygen-filled microparticles into the animals' blood. Oxygenating the blood by bypassing the lungs in this way could save the lives of people with impaired breathing or obstructed airways (abstract). In the past, doctors have tried to treat low levels of oxygen in the blood, or hypoxaemia, and related conditions such as cyanosis, by injecting free oxygen gas directly into the bloodstream. But oxygen injected in this way can accumulate into larger bubbles and form potentially lethal blockages."
Yeah... something tells me that "kept alive" means "killed" in this study.
Probably less than 1/10000th the number of rabbits that were sacrificed for dinner plates last night alone.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
The experimental solutions contained 50-90 mL of O2 per deciliter - to sustain an adult human, you need about 300 mL O2 per minute. At least 300 mL of IV fluid and as much as 600 mL per minute is going to have to go through one hell of an IV. I doubt you could achieve such infusion rates without specialized equipment (e.g., 8.5 French rapid infusion catheter + Level One pump) or multiple intraosseous needles. Furthermore, this is temporizing just like any other O2 delivery method. Oxygen is essential for life, but eventually you have to clear the CO2, or it's pointless. As a bridge to a secure airway or crash on to cardiopulmonary bypass? Sure, it's not a bad idea, except that the only thing that matters in that kind of life-or-death situation is how long it takes to get it in the room. By the time you get this stuff out of the refrigerator in pharmacy and run it to the OR, ER, or ICU, you could have gotten a surgeon there to do the cricothyrotomy or even a proper tracheostomy.
That's all technically true. I think the question you AREN'T asking is the most important one - what if you're not trying to sustain a human, but simply lengthen the amount of time before cell death? If I recall my first aid training (and I do), even an extra 10 minutes can be the difference between brain damage and 100% recovery.
Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
This seems to be the consensus among slashdotters given the consistent downmodding of people who even remotely question, let alone challenge, the ethics of animal experimentation. However, no one seems to address the rational justification for elevating humans to a higher level of worth. I'm not saying that experimentation is outright wrong, but the ethical assessments like these should never be automatic.
"Yeah... something tells me that "kept alive" means "killed" in this study."
It's a rabbit. If sacraficing a creature so stupid to not even be self aware can save hundreds or thousands of human lives, so be it. Science is cruel, but well worthwhile.
How do you know they're not self aware, and if you don't know 100% that they're not is it worth the risk?