Effects of Etomidate on spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury in rabbits

【Objective】To evaluate the effects of Etomidate aortic infusion on spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury in rabbits.【Methods】Sixty healthy New Zealand White rabbits were randomly allocated into three groups,8 in the sham-operation group(group A),26 in the intralipid infusion group(group B) and 26 in the Etomidate infu-sion group(group C).The spinal cord ischemia was induced by infrarenal aorta occlusion for 30 minutes.Etomidate 3 mg/kg were infused through aorta distal to the occlude sites of the rabbits in the group C continuously with a pump.The same volume of 10% intralipid were infused in the same way to the rabbits in the group B.Forty eight hours after reperfusion,the neurological functioning of the rabbits was assessed with the Tarlov scale system and the normal motor neurons of anterior horn of the lumbar segments of 4-6 spinal cords were counted.The lumbar seg-ments of 4-6 spinal cords were harvested and the IL-6 were examined 0 hour or 2 hours after reperfusion.【Re-sults】The rabbits in the group C had less paraplegia and more normal neurons than those in the group B.The IL-6 levels of the rabbits in group B were significant higher than those in group A and group C.There was no significant difference in the IL-6 levels between the group A and group C.A significant increase of IL-6 levels in the rabbits in the group B and the group C 2 hours after reperfusion was observed.【Conclusions】Etomidate 3 mg/kg aortic in-fusion can provide a protective effect against the ischemia/reperfusion injury induced spinal cord in rabbits.