The significance of microcirculatory modifications in traumatic lesions of the spinal cord. A preliminary, morphological study on experimentally induced spinal cord traumas.

The authors have studied the histological modifications in rabbit spinal cords after injury by a 20 g weight dropping from a 10 cm height. The animals were sacrificed at various time intervals from trauma (after 30', 60', 90', 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, 5 h, 6 h). The traumatized spinal cords are characterized by edema, regressive alterations of neurons as well as of glia and of fibres, and by microcentres of myelinolysis. The prominent and very precocious presence of edema is very likely one of the main factors causing regressive alterations in the cells present in myelinolysis centres.