Basic research on spinal cord perfusion on acute spinal cord injury

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the spinal cord function using spinal cord evoked potential (SCEP) and to analyze the effect of perfusion with artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) after the spinal cord injury.Ten adult Wister rats were anesthetized and immobilized with halothane and suxamethonium chloride. The animal had a laminectomy at mid thoracic level and was fixed in a stereotaxic frame. Catheter electrodes were inserted through the laminectomy for SCEP recording. Spinal cord was injured by low velocity compression with microactuator until SCEP amplitude became just below 10% of the initial amplitude. In 5 animals, durotomy and spinal cord perfusion with normothermic oxygenated aCSF was performed for 4 hours. The other 5 animals were remained as non-treated controls.4 hours after the injury, perfused animals showed the recovery of SCEP amplitude to 43.6% in average. In contrast, almost no potential was identified at this time in the control animals. The difference of the two groups was statistically significant, and this suggests that the local perfusion after acute spinal cord injury is a useful treatment for the functional recovery probably due to the suppression of secondary neuronal damage in early stage. Further study with longer observation and larger animals will be required.