Central necrosis of the spinal cord induced by hyperbaric oxygen exposure.

Seventy-six adult rats were exposed to 60 psig of oxygen on consecutive days until death. At autopsy, 17 of the animals segmental foci of central necrosis of the spinal cord gray matter, often associated with small ball- and flame-shaped hemorrhages in either the cervical and/or lumbosacral enlargements. Paraplegia or quadriplegia were clinically observed prior to death. The oxygen-induced spinal cord lesions are similar though not identical to those observed in experimental and human spinal cord trauma. These observations indicate that the therapeutic use of hyperbaric oxygen in patients with spinal cord injury has a potential danger of causing central spinal cord necrosis.