The results of the first clinical trial of “enteral ventilation” have been published, and are considered a success, a step along the road to a treatment that could save many lives and prevent even more injuries. Such events happen every day as medicine progresses, but this one stands out because “enteral ventilation” is more popularly known as “butt-breathing” or a few other names you can probably fill in for yourself.

Several Australian turtle species have found a way to delay the dangers of coming to the surface to breathe by extracting oxygen dissolved in water using their cloaca. In other words, they have gill-like features in their bums that supplement their oxygen intake. Dragonfly nymphs do something similar, and even expel the water afterwards as a form of jet propulsion. This, however, is Australia, and you can probably find seventeen weirder animal behaviors within a stone’s throw of a butt-breathing turtle (arguably including their headwear). 

Medical applications were probably not the first thing on the mind of those who discovered the trait. However, sick of watching patients struggle for breath with various lung conditions, and inspired by loaches (fish that process air through their stomachs), Dr Takanori Takebe of the Institute of Science, Tokyo, proposed to take an algal leaf out of the turtles’ book. Inevitably, the work was awarded the 2024 Ig Nobel physiology prize for demonstrating the viability of mammals being able to breathe through their butts on some no doubt surprised pigs.

Undeterred by the challenges of getting taken seriously, Takebe has ploughed ahead, and the first results are promising. 

"This is the first human data, and the results are limited solely to demonstrating the safety of the procedure and not its effectiveness,” Takebe stressed in a statement. “But now that we have established tolerance, the next step will be to evaluate how effective the process is for delivering oxygen to the bloodstream."