Effect of methylprednisolone in compression trauma to the feline spinal cord

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of methylprednisolone sodium succinate on clincal recovery and tissue preservation following compression trauma of feline spinal cord. Cats were anesthetized with pentobarbital and injured by placing a 170-gm weight on the spinal cord for 5 minutes. One hour after injury, the animals were given intravenous steroid (15 mg/kg/day) for 2 days in three devided doses, 15 mg/kg/day for 1 day intramuscularly, 7.5 mg/kg/day intramuscularly for 3 days, and 3.75 mg/kg/day intramuscularly for 3 days, for a total of 9 days. In a control group, the animals were injured but untreated. At 60 days after injury, the animals were sacrifieced by perfusion fixation with 10% formalin. The spinal cord was removed and evaluated for a number of morphometric parameters, including percentage of spinal cord cross-sectional area containing the cavity (%area) and percentage of spinal cord volume occupied by the cavity (%volume). A clinical recovery score (recovery index) was devised to evaluate neurological recovery. Steroid-treated cats showed significantly greater recovery than the untreated controls (p less than 0.001). Moreover, the spinal cord of treated cats displayed greater tissue preservation as measured by %area (p leass than 0.005) and %volume (p less than 0.004). Correlation coefficients comparing the recovery index with morphometric parameters revealed a negative correlation between cavity size and recovery. These data provide evidence for a beneficial effect of methylprednisolone in promoting recovery and preserving spinal cord tissue following blunt injury to the feline spinal cord.