Abstract： Objective To investigate differences in lung injury induced by seawater and freshwater perfusion in rabbits. Methods 21 New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into the normal group (the control group), the freshwater group and the seawater group. Same amounts of seawater and freshwater were perfused in the lungs of rabbits through tracheal incubation. Changes in the indices concerning symptomatology, blood-gas, hemodynamics, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), histology and lung injury were monitored 3 hours later. Then, the obtained data were analyzed statistically to see the differences in lung lesions of different animal groups. Results Blood-gas analysis, inflammatory factor measurement, lung injury score indicated that seawater and freshwater perfusion could all induce lung injury to a certain extent, and the injury induced by seawater perfusion was obviously severer(P<0.05). Conclusions Lung injury induced by seawater perfusion is severer than that by freshwater perfusion.