X-Message-Number: 3373
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 02:39:46 -0500
From: 
Subject: SCI. CRYONICS hyperbaric methods

There are at least two patents pertaining to high pressure methods in
cryopreservation, which the inventors considered promising. Greg Fahy's is
one. Harold Waitz (now at BioTime, I believe) has also done work in this
area. A fellow in Ohio, whose name escapes me at the moment, has one of the
patents; this is several years old.

I have never made any great effort to evaluate these procedures, mainly
because I just can't envision applying them to a human body, or even a human
head, except (possibly) with resources far beyond those available to us now.
If I understand it correctly, all three of the above investigators (Fahy,
Waitz, and the Ohio man) found serious obstacles even to treating small
mammalian organs this way. 

In theory, as I understand it, we could cool the patient under high pressure
(2,000 atm.?) until well below zero C, while he remains liquid; then release
the pressure and he almost instantaneously becomes solid (presumably with
very small crystals) and hopefully with reduced damage.

At the other end, warming the patient, we apply pressure when the temperature
is still well below zero C, melting him very quickly and hopefully reducing
or eliminating thawing damage. After rewarming is completed we release the
pressure again.

Unless somebody else beats us to it--which we hope happens--we will
eventually pursue this line and every other line of investigation. But it
isn't high on our priority list yet.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute

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