Intra-abdominal pressure effects on porcine thoracic compliance in weightlessness: implications for physiologic tolerance of laparoscopic surgery in space.

Objective:Laparoscopic surgery (LS) is envisioned as an option for spaceflight, but requires intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) to create the surgical domain. Prolonged weightlessness induces physiologic deconditioning that questions the ability of ill or injured astronauts to tolerate IAH. On earth