The treatment of hypotension due to acute experimental spinal cord compression injury.

The therapeutic value of elevating the systemic blood pressure was studied in an acute spinal cord compression injury model in rats. In this model an acute spinal cord compression at T1 by a 180 gram clip for one minute consistently produced profound hypotension, and untreated animals served as controls. Treated animals had their mean systemic blood pressure raised for one hour after injury. Functional recovery was assessed weekly for eight weeks post-operatively by the inclined plane method. It was found that with noradrenaline mean systemic blood pressure could be maintained at normotensive (100 to 120 mmHg) or hypertensive levels (125 to 150 mmHg) for one hour after injury, but that this had no effect on the functional recovery of the animals.