Abstract
Treatment of acute spinal cord injury has not been definitely established.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the combined treatment of mannitol administration followed by myelotomy on experimental spinal cord injury.
Adult dogs were traumatized at the T10 level by means of Allen's method. 500gm-cm contused dogs resulted in complete paraplegia one month after trauma.
Dogs given mannitol one and four hours after trauma could stand or raise their hips, but none could walk or run. The dogs treated by myelotomy four hours after trauma showed similar results as ones given mannitol. The dogs treated by a combination of early mannitol administration and myelotomy four hours after trauma could all walk or stand. This result was almost the same as the effect of myelotomy one hour after trauma which was previously reported by the authors.
It is suggested that spinal autodestruction following cord contusion starts early after trauma, and that mannitol is able to suppress this early irreversible spinal damage.
