Acute effects of a pedicled omental graft on cold-induced brain oedema in cats

When used as a prophylactic measure and in chronic experiments, omental transposition has been shown to reduce ischaemic and traumatic oedema in the spinal cord and ischaemic oedema in the brain. We designed this experiment to evaluate the acute effects of a pedicled omental graft on cold-induced brain oedema in cats. Focal oedema was induced in the left frontoparietal region of the brain of nine anaesthetized cats. In five cats, a laparotomy was done and a pedicled omental graft was placed on the lesioned left hemisphere immediately after the cold lesion was made. All cats were sacrificed 72 hours later, and the water content of the white matter was determined in the lesioned and the normal hemispheres. The mean water content of the lesioned hemisphere of the treated group of animals was not significantly different from that of the control group. We conclude that a pedicled omental graft failed to reduce vasogenic oedema in an acute model and probably has no role in the acute management of brain oedema.