A team at Boston Children’s Hospital have invented a micro-particle that can be injected into the bloodstream to oxygenate blood without any help from the lungs.
Patients unable to breathe because of acute lung failure or an obstructed airway need a way to get oxygen to their blood, and fast, to avoid cardiac arrest and brain injury. Researchers have designed tiny, gas-filled micro-particles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to quickly oxygenate the blood. The micro-particles consist of a single layer of lipids (fatty molecules) that surround a tiny pocket of oxygen gas, and are delivered in a liquid solution. Each particle contains three to four times more oxygen than each of our own red blood cells.
The micro-particle solutions are portable and could stabilize patients in emergency situations, buying time for paramedics, emergency or intensive care clinicians to perform other life-saving therapies.
Potential uses for the new technology include teams being able to stay submerged for 30 minutes at a time without having to come up for air, and private sector uses- oil rig crews being able to fix underwater damage without the need for scuba equipment.
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