Effect of severe local hypoxemia on transcapillary water movement in dog forelimb

Abstract

The effect of severe local hypoxemia on forelimb weight during constant arterial inflow was examined in 17 dogs. The animal'' s femoral arterial blood was passed through an isolated lung from another dog and perfused into the right brachial artery at a constant rate. The isolated lung was sequentially ventilated with 5% CO2-20% 02-75% N2 (control), 5% CO2-95% N2 (hypoxemia), and control for 5, 15, and 10 min. respectively. The period of hypoxemia consistently reduced brachial perfusion pressure but failed to affect the rate of weight gain. This finding suggests that, during constant arterial inflow, severe local hypoxemia per se does not affect transcapillary water movement. Thus the study fails to provide evidence that hypoxemia increases capillary permeability.