A New Solution for Life Without Blood

Background The benefits of hypothermia for preventing ischemic injury are well known, but its application in surgery to protect the whole body during procedures requiring circulatory arrest is currently limited to <1 hour at 15°C using 50% hemodilution. In a significant departure from previous methods, we have developed a technique of asanguineous blood substitution with low-flow perfusion and cardiac arrest at <10°C in a canine model. Our approach has been to design a hypothermic blood substitute that would protect the brain and visceral organs during several hours of bloodless perfusion. Two different solutions have been designed to fulfill separate requirements in the procedure. Methods and Results With the use of extracorporeal cardiac bypass, 14 adult dogs were exsanguinated during cooling; 11 dogs were blood substituted using in combination the “purge” and “maintenance” solutions (group 1), and 3 dogs were perfused throughout with the “purge” solution alone as controls (group 2). After cardiac arres...