Effects of Clotrimazole on Experimental Spinal Cord Injury

We examined a possible neuroprotective effect of clotrimazole on spinal cord clip compression injury. Rivlin and Tator's acute extradural clip compression injury (CCI) model was used for producing SCI on 24 albino Wistar rats weighing 180–250 g. All rats were anesthetized with 30 mg/kg ketamine HCl intraperitoneally and were breathing spontaneously without tracheal intubation. Total laminectomy of T8–T12 was performed on all rats under operation microscope, and CCI was performed on all rats (expect those in group 1) with a 50-g closing force aneurysm clip for 1 min. Three hours later, all of the rats were killed with sodium pentobarbital. Spinal cords were excised for a length of 2 cm; 1 cm rostrally and caudally to the injury site and deep frozen at −76°C for biochemical studies. Treatment with clotrimazole decreased MDA levels in rats with SCI with a statistically significant difference. To our knowledge, this the first study that shows the effects of clotrimazole on spinal cord clip compression injury. Clotrimazole was found to be effective on spinal cord clip compression injury, but further investigations are mandatory.