Those suffering from a cardiac arrest after severe traumatic injury are to be placed into “suspended animation” to allow surgeons more time to save their lives, in a trial in the US.

Ten patients who would otherwise have been expected to die before reaching the hospital, will be test subjects for a new “emergency preservation and resuscitation” (EPR) technique being trialled at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Hospital in Pennsylvania.

The process involves replacing all a patient’s blood with a cold saline solution to induce hypothermia to drastically reduce cellular activity and oxygen requirements of the body. The technique could give surgeons up to an extra four hours to repair otherwise fatal damage to the body.

In the trial, the doctors will compare the survival rate of the ten patients treated with EPR to ten people that were treated using current practices, and then repeat the trials until they have sufficient evidence to examine.

Less than one in 10 patients who have suffered cardiac arrest after traumatic injury survive with current medical practices, and the doctors hope that this novel technique will improve their chances.