Preventive effect of Fluosol-DA for paraplegia encountered after surgical treatment of the thoracic aorta. Preliminary results in a dog model

The effectiveness of Fluosol-DA (Green Cross Corporation, Osaka, Japan) on circulatory dynamics and neurologic outcome in dogs with ischemic spinal cord injury produced by aortic crossclamping was tested. The control group (receiving saline solution) had an elevated mean aortic proximal pressure (112.9 +/- 30.2 mm Hg versus 175.3 +/- 20.5 mm Hg, p greater than 0.05) and a drastic drop in mean distal aortic pressure (112.9 +/- 30.2 mm Hg versus 29.8 +/- 11.2 mm Hg, p less than 0.05). Although the same trend occurred in dogs treated prophylactically with Fluosol-DA, these changes were not statistically significant. However, there was a significant difference in mean distal aortic pressure during the ischemic phase between the two groups (58.9 +/- 16.0 mm Hg versus 29.8 +/- 11.2 mm Hg, p less than 0.05). Postoperatively all animals had mean arterial pressures within the normal range. All dogs in the control group were paraplegic (partial or complete); the treatment group had one dog with partial paraplegia. The difference between the mean neurologic scores of the two groups was of high statistical significance (3.7 +/- 0.5 versus 1.6 +/- 1.0, p less than 0.05). Our preliminary results show that prophylactic use of Fluosol-DA has favorable effects on hemodynamics and neurologic outcome in dogs with spinal cord ischemia produced by aortic crossclamping. The high propensity of the drug to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide and to provide nutritional support to the ischemic area with resultant improvement in local microcirculation and blood rheology are some speculative mechanisms advocated for these changes.