Pressure in the treatment of spinal cord decompression sickness

Previous work had shown that a Po2 of about 2.0 bar was the optimal Po2 for the treatment of spinal cord decompression sickness (DCS). With 20 anesthetized dogs the hypothesis was tested that pressures in excess of a threshold, taken as 3 bar, did not enhance recovery of spinal cord DCS. Dogs were s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inUndersea biomedical research Vol. 12; no. 3; p. 291
Main Authors Leitch, D R, Hallenbeck, J M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.1985
Subjects
Animals
Atmospheric Pressure
Blood Pressure
Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology
Decompression Sickness - physiopathology
Decompression Sickness - therapy
Diving
Dogs
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory
Hyperbaric Oxygenation
Intracranial Pressure
Male
Neural Inhibition
Peroneal Nerve - physiopathology
Reaction Time - physiology
Spinal Cord - physiopathology
Spinal Cord Diseases - physiopathology
Spinal Cord Diseases - therapy
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Summary:Previous work had shown that a Po2 of about 2.0 bar was the optimal Po2 for the treatment of spinal cord decompression sickness (DCS). With 20 anesthetized dogs the hypothesis was tested that pressures in excess of a threshold, taken as 3 bar, did not enhance recovery of spinal cord DCS. Dogs were subjected to a 15-min air dive at 10 bar (300 ft) and decompressed over 5.5 min. At the surface, spinal cord evoked potentials (SEP) were observed for changes indicating DCS. Fifteen minutes after DCS was first detected the dogs were recompressed to 3, 5, 7, or 2.8 bar breathing 66, 40, 29, or 100% oxygen which gave a Po2 of 2.0 bar except in the 2.8 bar group. The recovery of the SEP over 2 h was observed. Group mean recoveries at 67, 62, 29, and 42% were not significantly different after 120 min. As the hypothesis was supported, a tentative proposal for changing current therapy was made.
ISSN:0093-5387