Furosemide lowers intracranial pressure by inhibiting CSF production

Furosemide administration effectively lowers intracranial pressure in newborn preterm and term rabbit pups. This effect may be due to the diuretic action of the drug, its ability to inhibit cerebrospinal fluid production or to a combination of both. To test these possibilities newborn rabbits were either injected with furosemide and left unmolested for 6 hours, or anaesthetized and subjected to ventriculocisternal perfusions. During the 6 hour postnatal period the decrease in body weight was 8 times greater in furosemide than in saline treated pups. However, no difference was noted between the average brain weights of these two groups. Secondary effects of the diuretic were noted in blood (12.5% increase in the haematocrit over control value) and in muscle in which tissue water content and NA+ concentration were decreased while K+ concentration was increased. The fact that these parameters remained unchanged in brain suggests that the lowering of intracranial pressure was not attributable to the secondary effects of the diuretic agent. However, the marked reduction in cerebrospinal production noted following furosemide administration indicates that in newborn rabbits this may represent the primary mechanism by which furosemide lowers intracranial pressure.