Toxicity Studies of Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) in Pneumoperitoneum**Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, N. Y.
✍ Scribed by Hodge, Harold C. ;George Swalbach, W. ;Rahn, Hermann
- Book ID
- 102917537
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Year
- 1958
- Weight
- 681 KB
- Volume
- 47
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0095-9553
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✦ Synopsis
The results of studies of rats and d o s maintained with neumoperitoneum of s ~& hexafluoride, anfwith air for control observations, for periods of six months are reported. The toxicity found was of a sdliciently low order to warrant initial treatments of humans.
VER SINCE THE INTRODUCTION of artificial pneumothorax and pneumoperitoneum for therapeutic reasons, the reabsorption of the injected gas has been noted. For prolonged therapy this reabsorption has been a nuisance requiring refillings from time to time. It was noted early that pure oxygen disappeared much faster than air, and today air is the common gas used.
Many attempts have been made during the last fifty years to find a more suitable gas than aira gas which would be more slowly absorbed from the cavity. Webb, et al. (l), found no difference between air and nitrogen. Grass and Meiners (2) employed argon which was absorbed faster than air. Helium was tried unsuccessfully by Schedtler (3). More recently helium was found to extend the time between refills four to six days in pneumoperitoneum patients (4). Comparing the absorption rates of various gases from closed body pockets (5-8), however, led to the general conclusion that of all the gases so far tested nitrogen is the slowest to diffuse and therefore is most suitable for a prolonged collapse therapy. It was, therefore, of some interest when Tenney, Carpenter, and Rahn (9) showed that the inert gas SF6 when injected into a body cavity, not only disappeared more slowly than nitrogen, but actually produced a temporary doubling of the pneumoperitoneum volume before it slowly disappeared.
Before administering SFe gas to pneumoperitoneum patients, it was necessary to demonstrate the lack of toxicity of this gas. This paper presents the results of studies of rats and dogs maintained with pneumoperitoneum of sF6, and with air for control observations, for periods of six months. Based on these observations the initial treatments of patients reported elsewhere (10) were undertaken.