Mild hypothermia protects the spinal cord from ischemic injury in a chronic porcine model

Mild hypothermia protects the spinal cord from ischemic injury in a chronic porcine model
Justus T Strauch, Alexander Lauten, David Spielvogel, Sindy Rinke, Ning Zhang, Donald Weisz, Carol A Bodian and Randall B Griepp
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, 2004

The thoracic aorta was exposed and cross-clamped in 30 juvenile pigs for different intervals at normothermia and during mild hypothermia. Myogenic motor-evoked and operation recovery were evaluated. At normothermia, those cross-clamped for 30 min suffered paraplegia. With mild hypothermia, animals tolerated 50 min of aortic cross-clamping without evidence of neurologic injury. This indicates that mild hypothermia dramatically increases the tolerance of the spinal cord to ischemia.