Ibuprofen reduces the lung lymph flow changes associated with inhalation injury.

Inhalation injury was produced in sheep which were chronically prepared for study. The injury was induced by insufflating them with smoke from burning cotton cloth. One group of animals was treated with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor ibuprofen and another group was untreated. Eight hr following the administration of smoke, there was an elevation of lung lymph flow in both groups. These changes were not as severe in the animals which were treated with ibuprofen. The pulmonary changes which occur following smoke inhalation injury are associated with elevations of the metabolites of arachidonic acid, especially those generated by the cyclooxygenase pathway. These metabolites in some way contribute to the pathophysiological changes induced by the inhalation of smoke, since they are reduced by the administration of a cyclooxygenase inhibitor.