Injectable O2

[Carlobrand]

I don't know if this has come up before. First I've heard of it. They've developed a way to administer O2 by injection. They have this liquid with microparticles, some sort of fatty substance that surrounds the oxygen and allows it to be taken up by cells in the body. It's not a perfect solution - apparently you can't administer too many injections or the fluid "overloads" the blood somehow (and presumably a person who has stopped taking in O2 is also having trouble getting rid of CO2) - but it buys a few critical minutes for emergency personnel to implement some other life-saving measure that might take longer to put in place. Could also buy those few critical minutes if you were carrying it and found yourself underwater without breathing equipment.

Might also have some small application in a vacuum situation. If a person has this on hand and injects it within the first few seconds of exposure of the vacuum, he might maybe buy himself a minute or so to save himself rather than the paltry few seconds of consciousness vacuum normally affords. Speculative - vacuum draws oxygen out of the lungs, and I'm not sure how these fatty microparticles would deal with that - but it does make the difference between, "You're dead" and "Roll the dice" when the player finds himself in a suddenly bad situation.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247295.php

 

[whartung]

I don't know if this has come up before. First I've heard of it. They've developed a way to administer O2 by injection. They have this liquid with microparticles, some sort of fatty substance that surrounds the oxygen and allows it to be taken up by cells in the body. It's not a perfect solution - apparently you can't administer too many injections or the fluid "overloads" the blood somehow (and presumably a person who has stopped taking in O2 is also having trouble getting rid of CO2) - but it buys a few critical minutes for emergency personnel to implement some other life-saving measure that might take longer to put in place. Could also buy those few critical minutes if you were carrying it and found yourself underwater without breathing equipment.

I can see this being utilized, for example, in Battle Dress, as part of a life support measure that can be administered by the suit automatically. 30m of down time in a non-breathing environment.

 

[Carlobrand]

I can see this being utilized, for example, in Battle Dress, as part of a life support measure that can be administered by the suit automatically. 30m of down time in a non-breathing environment.

That'd be a useful feature in battledress for wounds also, maybe the difference between a dead marine and one who could be dragged back to a casualty station and saved in the event of a lung injury.

Found a picture. Vial is marked for 100 ml.

https://newatlas.com/oxygen-microparticles/23139/

Add: I tracked down the original study on Researchgate, for those interested in primary sources. So, that 100ml vial delivers 90 ml of O2, which is not a lot considering your body burns on average about 380 ml per minute; you'd need an infusion arrangement delivering roughly 400 ml per minute. Since your normal blood volume averages about 5 liters, I can see where pouring in this liquid over 15 minutes or more could start giving you problems, or else I'm not understanding this experiment correctly. I'm not sure how much additional volume the circulatory system can accommodate before something breaks.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...particles_Provide_Intravenous_Oxygen_Delivery

 

[Meteoric Assault]

You may want to look at PaO2

While your idea is very interesting, take a look at PaO₂ that is already in the the blood. ABG’s usually measures PaO₂.

One consideration is a implant that allows a transfer of PaO2 to hemoglobin carried oxygen. Doping RBCs can lead to complications chief being Polycythemia so adding more RBC’s is not the answer. Although Diamox (Acetazolamide) which increases RBC production is frequently used in high altitude (read also low pressure) sporting and military applications, there are complications.

Nano technology and implants seems to be the best bet of a workaround.

 

[kilemall]

Major 10-second application? Fighting high-G blackout.

 

[Timerover51]

While your idea is very interesting, take a look at PaO₂ that is already in the the blood. ABG’s usually measures PaO₂.

One consideration is a implant that allows a transfer of PaO2 to hemoglobin carried oxygen. Doping RBCs can lead to complications chief being Polycythemia so adding more RBC’s is not the answer. Although Diamox (Acetazolamide) which increases RBC production is frequently used in high altitude (read also low pressure) sporting and military applications, there are complications.

Nano technology and implants seems to be the best bet of a workaround.

Pa is the element symbol for Proactinium, a fairly radioactive element. I was not aware that we had any level of this in our blood stream. Phosphorus, element symbol "P", and Potassium is symbol "K", was it one of those two you were thinking of?

 

[kilemall]

Pa is the element symbol for Proactinium, a fairly radioactive element. I was not aware that we had any level of this in our blood stream. Phosphorus, element symbol "K", and Potassium is symbol "P", was it one of those two you were thinking of?

Less chemical molecule, more acronym-


https://www.verywellhealth.com/partial-pressure-of-oyxgen-pa02-914920

 

[aramis]

Less chemical molecule, more acronym-


https://www.verywellhealth.com/partial-pressure-of-oyxgen-pa02-914920

The engineering side traditionally uses PPO2.

 

[McPerth]

We currently use more the oxigen saturation than the PO₂ , as it's easier to get (you only nees a finger sensor to get the saturation, while you need an arterial blood sample to know the PO₂.

In any case, I don't see much an advantage over orotracheal intubation for what's said in the article, and most times it's easier to intubate than to get an IV in a critical patient. Add to this that the intubation can be kept for longer and it'sprobably cheaper (somenting all too often neglected).

 

[Carlobrand]

...

In any case, I don't see much an advantage over orotracheal intubation for what's said in the article, and most times it's easier to intubate than to get an IV in a critical patient. Add to this that the intubation can be kept for longer and it'sprobably cheaper (somenting all too often neglected).

The situations mentioned in the article were situations in which intubation would not have been an option, but I'm not a medical professional. Is there some manner in which one would intubate someone who had an obstruction in the airway? If you couldn't clear the obstruction quickly, you'd be down to doing a tracheostomy in the field, no? And, I'm not sure how intubation would help someone whose lungs had collapsed from some injury. Intubation presupposes that the lungs are still able to do their job, which isn't always the case: the case mentioned in the article was of a child who died of severe pneumonia before they could get her on a heart-lung machine.

The proposed treatment isn't intended as an alternative to intubation - you can only provide a few of these treatments before the treatment itself starts causing problems. It's intended only to buy you a few minutes you wouldn't otherwise have, perhaps enough time to perform that tracheostomy or get some other intervention in place to provide longer-term support.

At any event, it'd be an interesting addition to your far future med kit. Might buy your far future EMT enough time to get that barotrauma victim hooked up to the cardiopulmonary bypass machine in sickbay.

 

[Condottiere]

You have pills that are designed to dissolve at specific intervals, if the vehicles carrying oxygen have different thicknesses of membranes, it would allow both a more even distribution across the body, and sustained sustainment.