Topical poloxamer-188 improves blood flow following thermal injury in rat mesenteric microvasculature.

Microvascular changes of sludging and stasis are indications of thermal injury in tissue. This study investigates whether microvascular thermal injury can be decreased via topical application of poloxamer-188. Rat mesenteric microvessels were thermally injured and topically suffused with either Ringer's solution (control) or 5% poloxamer-188 in Ringer's solution (experiment). Blood flow was characterized in microvessels as normal or abnormal (ie, sludging and stasis). Topical treatment with poloxamer-188 reduced the percentage of capillaries with abnormal blood flow from 62% to 23%. In venules, this treatment resulted in a decrease from 54% to 34%. These results demonstrated that topically applied poloxamer-188 dramatically reduces the microvascular changes of sludging and stasis because of thermal injury in rat mesenteric microvessels.