Perioperatively inhaled hydrogen gas diminishes neurologic injury following experimental circulatory arrest in swine
Cole AR et al. · JACC Basic Transl Sci. 2019;4(2):176–187.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Randomized neonatal-swine cardiopulmonary-bypass and circulatory-arrest experiment
Critical care and ischemia-reperfusion
Other forms
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Neonatal swine undergoing 75 minutes of circulatory arrest at 25°C
16 swine, n=8/group
24 hours of ventilation including perioperative treatment; follow-up through postoperative day 3
2.4% H₂ added to inspiratory gases during and after the ischemic insult through a conventional ventilator
H₂ added to ventilator inspiratory gas — not Brown’s gas.
2.4% inhaled H₂.
Not reported as a fixed mL/min value — ventilator flow varied with the mechanical-ventilation protocol.
Ventilator oxygen concentration was managed clinically; no single fixed O₂ flow in mL/min represents the exposure.
The same perioperative protocol without added H₂
Outcomes and reported result
Survival, neurologic examinations, MRI, histopathology, serologic brain-injury markers and renal injury
The article reports less neurological and renal injury with H₂. Overall survival was not significantly different; two control swine died before day-3 assessment.
Allocation, concentration, timing, clinical, imaging and histologic outcomes, safety procedures, funding and conflicts checked in the open-access full text.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Large-animal preclinical model, small sample, two control deaths and a complex ventilator exposure that cannot be reduced to one fixed mL/min dose.
Experimental pediatric-like circulatory arrest in swine, not cardiac-surgery outcomes in children or adults.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 31061920 · DOI: 10.1016/j.jacbts.2018.11.006
Open-access full text is available through PMC and the journal.
Open-access PMC/journal full text and PubMed record; no retraction or expression of concern was shown in the checked records on 7 August 2026.
2026-08-10