Japanese and US researchers, led by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, have completed the first-ever human trial testing the viability of enteral ventilation, where patients with severe respiratory failure could potentially have oxygen delivered through the intestine, allowing the lungs to recover and to prevent further injury.
The procedure’s safety and tolerability was examined on 27 healthy male adults in Japan, who had oxygen-rich fluid pumped into their anus.
“This is the first human data, and the results are limited solely to demonstrating the safety of the procedure and not its effectiveness,” said researcher Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD, from the Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Osaka. “But now that we have established tolerance, the next step will be to evaluate how effective the process is for delivering oxygen to the bloodstream.”
This research first came about after scientists had studied a type of bottom-feeding fish that swallows air from the surface of the water and absorbs oxygen through its gut, supplementing gill function in poor quality conditions. If humans were able to safely absorb super-oxygenated liquid through their colon, into their bloodstream, it has the potential to provide life-saving emergency treatment to people with blocked airways caused by injury or inflammation, or when lung function has been severely compromised.
American Buddhist Net 