The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

The Effect of Naloxone on Pathological Changes in the Experimental Spinal Cord Injury

Sung Hak Kim, Kyu Man Shin
Corresponding author: Kyu Man Shin. Department of Neurosurgery, Ewha Womans University, College of Medicine, Korea.

Copyright ⓒ 1984. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

The pathological lesion in spinal injury is usually more severe in the central gray matter and spreads centrifugally to surrounding white matter. Opiate antagonists, naloxone, by blocking the pathophysiologic effect of endorphins, should increase both mean arterial pressure and spinal cord blood flow and limit neurologic injury. Naloxone produce increase of lateral column blood flow and ameliorate the central gray matter ischemia. We have investigated to thoracic cord confusion. The spinal cord of naloxone-treated cats has less tissue damage than would be observed in time-matched standards.

Keywords: Naloxone; Endorphin; Ischemia