Liquid breathing can not effectively protect the lung from biophysical forces associated with the gas ventilator. New application modes for PFC have been developed. Partial liquid ventilation (PLV) involves filling the lungs with a fluid. This fluid is perfluorocarbon, also called Liquivent or Perflubron. The liquid has some unique properties. It has a very low surface tension, similar to surfactant, a substance that is produced in the lungs to prevent the alveoli from collapsing and sticking together during exhalation. It also has a high density, oxygen readily diffuses through it, and it may have some anti-inflammatory properties. In PLV, the lungs are
Surface tension wire and dipping it in soap-solution, a locally minimal surface will appear in the resulting soap-film within seconds. The reason for this is that the pressure difference across a fluid interface is proportional to the mean curvature, as seen in the Young–Laplace equation. For an open soap film, the pressure difference is zero, hence the mean curvature is zero, and minimal surfaces have the property of zero mean curvature. The surface of any liquid is an interface between that liquid and some other medium. The top surface of a pond, for example, is an interface between the pond water and