Panmyelic Epidural Cooling Protects against Ischemic Spinal Cord Damage
M Marsala, I Vanicky, J Galik, J Radonak, I Kundrat, J Marsala
Journal of Surgical Research, 1993
The neuroprotective effect of epidural cooling before and during spinal cord ischemia on the neurological, neurophysiological, and histopathological outcome was evaluated after 40 min of proximal and distal thoracic aorta crossclamping in dogs. Four out of eight animals in the normothermic group showed complete paraplegia and four had partial recovery. In the hypothermic group, seven of eight animals had no neurological deficit and one animal showed partial recovery, which was significantly better than the motor score for the normothermic group. This shows spinal cord epidural cooling has a highly protective effect against ischemic spinal cord damage.