The technique involves replacing all of a patient's
blood with a cold saline solution.
The technique was first demonstrated in pigs in 2002 by
Hasan Alam at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann
Arbor, and his colleagues.
Their blood was drained and replaced by either a cold
potassium or saline solution, rapidly cooling the body
to around 10 °C. After the injuries were treated, the
animals were gradually warmed up as the solution was
replaced with blood.
Surgeons are now on call at the UPMC Presbyterian
Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to perform the
operation. Because the trial will happen during a
medical emergency, neither the patient nor their family
can give consent. A final meeting this week will ensure
that a team of doctors is fully prepared to try it. Then
all they have to do is wait for the right patient to
arrive. When this happens, every member of Tisherman's
team will be paged.
The technique will be tested on 10 people, and the
outcome compared with another 10 who met the criteria
but who weren't treated this way because the team wasn't
on hand. The technique will be refined then tested on
another 10, says Tisherman, until there are enough
results to analyse.
"...we don't like to call it suspended animation because
it sounds like science fiction..."
says Samuel Tisherman, a surgeon at the hospital, who is
leading the trial.
"After we did those experiments, the definition of 'dead'
changed, Every day at work I declare people dead. They
have no signs of life, no heartbeat, no brain activity.
I sign a piece of paper knowing in my heart that they
are not actually dead. I could, right then and there,
suspend them. But I have to put them in a body bag.
It's frustrating to know there's a solution."
says surgeon Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona in
Tucson, who helped develop the technique.
