sodium-oxybate and Spinal-Cord-Injuries

This study aims to evaluate the effects of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) after spinal cord trauma (SCT). Twenty rabbits were divided equally into four groups: group I was the sham-operated group, group II suffered from SCT but received no treatment, group III was given a dose of 400 mg/kg of GHB intravenously before SCT and group IV received the same dose after SCT. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were obtained 30 min before SCT (T(0)), at 60 (T(1)) and 120 min (T(2)) after SCT. There was a threefold increase in lactate levels from baseline value at T(2) in group II, while statistically significant elevation of the lactate levels were not observed in groups III and IV. Glucose levels at T(1) and T(2) were significantly lower in groups III and IV compared with the control group. The findings of this study demonstrate that GHB can control the increase of CSF lactate and glucose levels following SCT and that this metabolic effect may be associated with neuroprotective physiological changes.

Topics: Adjuvants, Anesthesia; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Blood Pressure; Disease Models, Animal; Glucose; Heart Rate; Lactic Acid; Lipid Peroxidation; Male; Rabbits; Sodium Oxybate; Spinal Cord Injuries; Time Factors

Posttraumatic spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) was assessed after elevating the mean systemic arterial pressure (mSAP) with a blood transfusion, or with an infusion of dopamine. The effect of the anesthetic agent, gamma hydroxybutyrate, was also assessed. Flows were measured using the 14C-antipyrine autoradiographic method. Animals were injured at T-1 by acute compression of the spinal cord with a clip exerting a pressure of 175 gm. Uninjured animals, with mSAP's of 120.0 +/- 17.0 mm Hg, had gray and white matter flows of 74.2 +/- 22.3 and 18.7 +/- 6.7 ml/100 gm/min, respectively, while injured untreated animals had mSAP's of 82.5 +/- 14.1 mm Hg and gray and white matter flows of 13.3 +/- 12.1 and 3.9 +/- 3.9 ml/100 gm/min, respectively, at the injury site. Blood transfusion raised the mSAP's to 127.5 +/- 13.7 mm Hg in the injured animals and doubled the flows in gray and white matter to 25.6 +/- 30.2 and 6.3 +/- 6.4 ml/100 gm/ml, respectively. Dopamine did not have as beneficial an effect as blood transfusion on either the mSAP (101.0 +/- 16.7 mm Hg) or the SCBF (gray and white matter flows of 18.4 +/- 12.4 and 5.8 +/- 5.9 ml/100 gm/min). Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) had almost no effect on the mSAP or SCBF of normal animals, and in injured animals produced only a unilateral increase in flow on the less severely injured side, without affecting the mSAP.

Topics: Animals; Autoradiography; Blood Pressure; Blood Transfusion; Carbon Dioxide; Dopamine; Female; Hydroxybutyrates; Ischemia; Partial Pressure; Rats; Regional Blood Flow; Sodium Oxybate; Spinal Cord; Spinal Cord Injuries

It was found that in patients with spinal and cerebrospinal lesions considerable circulatory disorders occur that are depended on the character of the disease and related homeostasis disturbances. As evidenced by the authors' findings the main causes of circulatory disturbances may be as follows: altered innervation below the focus of cerebrospinal lesion, the development of insufficiency of the myocardiac contractility, a changed general vascular resistance, a decrease of total circulatory volume.

Topics: Barbiturates; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Halothane; Hemodynamics; Humans; Neuroleptanalgesia; Sodium Oxybate; Spinal Cord; Spinal Cord Injuries; Spinal Cord Neoplasms; Spinal Injuries; Spine