Functional recovery from spinal cord trauma following normothermic irrigation in dogs

The spinal cords of 16 normal dogs were exposed via dorsal laminectomies and damaged with a known impact force. In eight dogs the injured portions of the spinal cords were irrigated, without durotomy, for 2 h with normothermic saline. The remaining eight dogs were used as controls and were not irrigated. The results showed that normothermic irrigation of damaged spinal cords, immediately after impact trauma, had a significant beneficial effect on the functional recovery of the spinal cords.