Improved recovery from a traumatic-hypoxic brain injury in cats by intracisternal injection of an anion transport inhibitor.

Cats, injured by a mechanical plus hypoxic model of traumatic brain injury, were treated by intracisternal injection of a modified loop diuretic (L-644,711). This drug inhibits the chloride/bicarbonate anion exchange transport system. The treatment resulted in a significant decrease in mortality from 61 to 21%, and an improvement in both neurological status and EEG activity of the surviving animals. The dose of drug given intracisternally was at least 175 times less than the dosage we previously found was needed to achieve a comparable effect when the drug was given intravenously. The present results suggest that certain types of head injury can be treated by drugs which affect cellular anion transport processes in the brain.