Lack of functional recovery from spinal cord trauma following dimethylsulphoxide and epsilon amino caproic acid therapy in dogs.

The spinal cords of 20 normal dogs were exposed via dorsal laminectomies at L1 and damaged with a direct impact force of 440 g cm. One hour later treatment with dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) was started on 10 dogs and with epsilon amino caproic acid (EACA) on the other 10 dogs. Administration of the DMSO ceased at 41 h after trauma and EACA at 49 h. The results showed that neither drug had a significant beneficial effect on the functional recovery of the spinal cords, when compared to a control group of similarly traumatised dogs.