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At 2:57 AM 10/14/95, A.Appleyard wrote:
>The BBC TV 1 (UK) program `Tomorrow's World' at 7.30-8 pm Fri 13 Oct 1995 had
>an item about fluorocarbon liquid breathing as a treatment for very premature
>babies with underdeveloped lungs. As a sideline it said that there is a story
>that the USA navy special forces have liquid breathing diving gear and that 20
>divers have dived with it. Does anyone out there know anything about this?

A week ago I would have replied with the standard "it's bullshit" answer that
I've heard over and over again here and on rec.scuba.  Fortunately, I finally
found a write up of the original work by J.A. Kylstra in the 3rd addition
of B&E, which is out of print but can he found in selected medical libraries.

I had been told that oxyginated fluorocarbons could be used but resulted
in pneumonia due to stripping of the lung surfactant.  Kylstra does not
mention this as a factor in recovery from oxyginated fluorocarbon ventilation;
he does discuss the effect of oxyginated saline on surfactant removal in human
lungs, but notes that lung surface tensions shortly returned to normal in the
human subjects they studied.

The biggest problem Kylstra mentions is CO2 removal.  It appears that
oxy-fluorocarbon is a poor carrier of CO2, and suggests that a stable
emulsion of oxy-fluorocarbon (FC-80), NaOH and L 1478 (a surfactant)
can be made (Mathews & Klystra '78) that nearly approximates the oxygen
transport abilities of FC-80 alone, while greatly improving the CO2
transport of the emulsion.  This looks like 'directions for future
research' to me.

In short, it would appear that this is not bullshit at all.  It would also
appear that research terminated abruptly right around 1980.

Scott.


Mathews, W.H. & Klystra, J.A. (1978) 'Investigation of a new breathing
  liquid' in Undrewater Physiology VI, pp. 179-185, C.W. Schilling & M.W.
  Becket, eds., Bethesda, MD. Fedn Am Socs Exp Biol.

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