Influence of high voltage pulsed current on edema formation following impact injury in rats.

High voltage pulsed current (HVPC) has been shown to be effective in curbing posttraumatic edema formation in frogs. The purpose of this study was to establish the utility of HVPC in controlling edema formation in a mammalian model. Both feet of 20 anesthetized rats were traumatized following initial determination of hind-limb volumes. Four 30-minute cathodal HVPC treatments at 120 pulses per second and 90% of visible motor threshold interspersed with 30-minute rest periods were applied to one randomly selected hind limb of each rat via the immersion technique. The other hind limb served as a control. Limb volumes were measured after each treatment and rest period. All data were expressed as changes from pretrauma limb volumes in milliliters per kilogram of body weight; these data were analyzed by repeated-measures analyses of variance and post hoc paired t tests. Volumes of untreated limbs were significantly greater than volumes of treated limbs after the second treatment. Evidence of significant treatment effects in frogs, and now rats, provides a compelling rationale for initiating trials of efficacy of cathodal HVPC in inhibiting acute edema formation in humans.