

Suspended animation is becoming a life-saving medical procedure - dnetesn
http://prime.nautil.us/issue/22/slow/how-to-turn-your-dog-off

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brd
Looks like an expansion of this work:
[http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/save-
soldie...](http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/save-soldiers-
battlefield-darpa-wants-suspend-animation)

Also, there's this trial going on to cool the body to increase the time
surgeons have:
[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140402-suspe...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140402-suspended-
animation-gunshot-victims-science-death/)

I think the first time I recall some interesting work in suspended animation
was in ~2006. It's impressive to see how far the techniques have come since
then.

~~~
jessriedel
Hypothermia has been used increase the time surgeons have for more than half a
century

> In 1950, after four years of research, our Toronto team reported to medical
> science the first successful open heart operation on record. Using
> hypothermia and animals, the body temperature was lowered, the blood
> entering the heart was stopped and the heart was opened for 20 minutes.
> Following this report to a senior American society, hypothermia became a
> sensation and dominated the surgical scientific literature for 10 years.

> In 1954, after further research, the first open heart operation on a human
> patient in Canada was carried out by our team at the Toronto General
> Hospital, using hypothermia. Hypothermia became the most common form of open
> heart surgery between 1954 and 1960 in the few cardiac surgery centres that
> existed around the world.

[http://www.chrcrm.org/en/salute-excellence/hypothermia-
open-...](http://www.chrcrm.org/en/salute-excellence/hypothermia-open-heart-
surgery)

This sort of thing is by now routine, and also is used for some brain
surgeries.

It's been difficult for me to understand whats new enough about this that it
has been making the rounds in the news. Some of the new stories a few months
ago seem sparked by a recent clinical trial, which (I think) was sorta novel
in that it used these techniques in emergent situations.

~~~
maxerickson
It seems likely the Nautilus article is related to the mentioned paper, which
was published in November:

[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112458)

~~~
jessriedel
This is impressive. Any know if this is supposed to be just for hearts, or
could be used for strokes too?

~~~
tsotha
It should be useful for anything doctors can fix if they have the time.

Here's an article from 2014 in which they discuss a trial testing hypothermia
for trauma patients who've bled out:

[http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/23/tech/innovation/suspended-
anim...](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/23/tech/innovation/suspended-animation-
trials/)

~~~
jessriedel
Yea, that was the one I was thinking of in my top reply to brd :)

------
mikeytown2
Reading this reminds me of the "Mistakes Were Made" This American Life podcast
[1]. It's amazing how much we've learned in the last 50 years & how far we
have to go in order to get to what we've seen in movies [2]

[1] [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/354/m...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/354/mistakes-were-made)

[2] [http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/4156/explain-
hyper...](http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/4156/explain-hypersleep-
from-alien-prometheus-etc)

------
Apofis
The Milwaukee protocol is an experimental course of treatment of an infection
of rabies in a human being. The treatment involves putting the patient into a
chemically induced coma and administering antiviral drugs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_protocolWikipedia

------
abruzzi
The article doesn't mention the impact of loss of oxygen to the brain. I would
have to assume, that if this is moving to human trials, that there is evidence
that this reduces or eliminates the effect of oxygen deprivation on the brain?

~~~
carapace
I would suspect that, since the whole method of action seems to be to reduce
the cells' metabolic need for oxygen, there wouldn't be damaged from
"deprivation" because the cells would still be getting all the oxygen they
required.

------
jessaustin
Perhaps somewhat related, in that slowing metabolism saves tissue:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9226848](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9226848)

------
ridgeguy
H2S-induced suspended animation featured in Alastair Reynold's sci-fi novel
Pushing Ice, which I've mentioned earlier in another context. Recommended as a
good read.

