Evaluation of neuroprotective efficacy of gabapentin in experimental spinal cord injury

EVALUATION OF NEUROPROTECTIVE EFFICACY OF GABAPENTIN (GBP) IN EXPERIMENTAL SPINAL CORD INJURY (SCI)Gündüz Kadir İstan, MD., Dokuz Eylul University, School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Inciralti ? Izmir / TurkeyABSTRACTObjective: Purpose of this study was to evaluate the neuroprotective efficacy of pre- and post- traumatic Gabapentin administration in histological and neurobehavioral recovery in a rat experimental spinal cord injury (SCI) model.Material and Method: Twenty-four Wistar Albino female rats having normal motor activities were allocated randomly into three main groups to contain seven rats in each and a sham-operated group of 3 rats. Rats were preoperatively anesthetized with 35 mg ketamine and 5 mg ksilozin. Model was constructed so that Group 1 (sham-operated group) had only laminectomy; Group 2 (control group) had laminectomy and traumatized; Group 3 (treatment group) administered with Gabapentin (150 mg/kg intravenous) two-hours after the laminectomy and trauma;Group 4 had laminectomy, injected with Gabapentin (150 mg/kg intravenous) and then traumatized 5 minutes after injection. For the purposes of creating a standard trauma, a Yasargil aneurysm clip (Aesculap FE 721 K) with a 63-gram closing force was applied for one minute around the dura and the spinal cord. In order to assess the functional recovery following the surgical procedure, neurobehavioral tests were carried out in all rats on days 1, 10, 20 and 30. At the end of the 30th day, all rats were killed and samples obtained from the traumatized area were stained via hematoxylin-eosin, TUNEL method and caspase-3 for histological assessment.Results: Comparison among the results of neurobehavioral tests and histological assessments showed that Groups administered with Gabapentin revealed significantly better recovery than other groups. Group 4 showed significantly better recovery than Group 3 in terms of neurobehavioral and histological results.Conclusion: Treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI) with Gabapentin improves histological and neurobehavioral recovery in experimentally traumatized rats.Keywords: Gabapentin, neuroprotective effect, spinal trauma, spinal cord injury (SCI)