UPMC PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. Every minute is critical for saving the life of trauma patients under surgery. Veteran trauma surgeon Samuel Tisherman is leading a trial with a technique called “suspended animation” which can minimize the tissue damage during surgery to allow enough time for the operation.
The basic idea of this technique is to cool-down the human body, shut down the cell activity, reduce the oxygen demand so as to keep the cells alive. During the procedure a tube is inserted into the patient’s aorta, and a large amount of ice-cold saline solution is pumped in to cool the body as quickly as possible. At this moment, the patients have no brain activity, no heartbeat, and no blood. They are temporarily put at a limbo state between dead and alive – as a strategy of buying surgeons more time in the fight against the clock.
The blood is then returned to the bodies after more than an hour. “It’s the most amazing thing to witness – when the heartbeat comes back,” says another surgeon, Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who helped develop the technique.
“It’s not science fiction – it’s based on experimental work and is being studied in a disciplined manner, before we use it to stop people dying,” says Rhee. The procedure of “suspended animation”- or more precisely – “emergency preservation and resuscitation” (EPR), has been demonstrated successful in animal experiments involving pigs. Currently, a similar trial with humans is being carried out on patients who suffered cardiac arrest after a traumatic injury. Those patients will otherwise have little chance to survive under normal circumstances. Although it may take several years before Tisherman can speak about the results, some patients have already received the treatment since the trial began.
The groundbreaking process has attracted the interest of the federal government. Tisherman said that the trial is overseen by the Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Defense has contributed financial support.
| Invention | Emergency Preservation And Resuscitation (EPR) |
|---|---|
| Organization | UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh |
| Researcher | Samuel Tisherman, Peter Rhee & Team |
| Field(s) | surgery, trauma, cardiac arrest, critical care, suspended animation, ischemia, resuscitation |
| Further Information | http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/23/tech/innovation/suspended-animation-trials/ |
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