HIGH FREQUENCY PARTIAL LIQUID VENTILATION AND SURFACTANT TREATMENT IN PRETERM LAMBS WITH RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME (RDS). ▴ 285

Conventional partial liquid ventilation (PLV) with perflubron (Liqui Vent®) has been shown to improve lung mechanics and gas exchange in infants with severe RDS. We studied high frequency PLV (HFPLV; Sensormedics 3100A) in the preterm lamb model of RDS (gest age 125-128 d) employing mean airway pressure 15 cm H₂O, 8-10 Hz, amplitude 22 - 50 cm H₂O adjusted for P_aCO₂, and F_IO₂ 1.0. We examined gas exchange in two groups - HFPLV (n=5) and high frequency gas ventilation (HFGV; n=5) over 5 hours. In addition, we hypothesized that follow-up treatment with surfactant would be synergistic with PLV, and treated 2 groups with Infasurf™ at 3.2 hours: HFPLV-S (n=5) and HFGV-S (n=5). Respectively: P_aO₂ increased 10-fold and P_aCO₂ normalized with HFPLV. Amplitude decreased from 50 ± 0 cm H₂O during HFGV to 33.4 ± 4.6 cm H₂O (P < 0.05) with HFPLV. P_aO₂, P_aCO₂, and amplitude for HFGV-S and HFPLV-S were simlar to HFGV and HFPLV respectively. (*P = < 0.05) Figure We conclude that HFPLV greatly improves gas exchange compared with HFGV in this model of severe RDS. Infasurf appeared to have no synergistic effect with HFPLV on gas exchange. Funded in part by Alliance Pharm. Corp, Sensormedics Corp.

Figure 1