An Animal Model for the Study of Lung Protective Therapies During One Lung Ventilation (OLV) in Children

One-lung ventilation (OLV) is the intentional collapse of one lung during surgical procedures in the chest. The objective of this report is to demonstrate that a piglet model of pediatric OLV mimics the clinical sequelae, and thus is valid to study lung protective interventions. Pediatric pigs (n = 7; 21 ± 1 d old; 7.7 ± 0.5 kg) were instrumented and ex- posed to OLV (left lung collapsed) for 3 hrs, followed by 30 min of bilateral lung ventilation (BLV) before sacrifice and tissue harvest. Pulmonary compliance (Cp) and resistance (Rp) were measured half-hourly and plasma samples were drawn hourly for inflammatory cytokine analysis. Cp dropped to 86% and Rp rose to 148% of baseline with OLV, which is consistent with clinical observations given the anatomical differences of the pig thorax. Plasma levels of TNF-� and IL- 6 rose throughout the protocol, consistent with clinical observations. Lung histology showed greater atelectasis in the col- lapsed lungs following 30 min of BLV. The piglet model is valid for the study of OLV-induced lung injury and may be useful for the study of potential therapies to improve outcomes in the pediatric population.