Assessment relationship between the femoral artery vasospasm and dorsal root ganglion cell degeneration in spinal subarachnoid hemorrhage: an experimental study.

STUDY DESIGN: Animal proof of principle study. OBJECTIVES: To investigate neurodegeneration in rabbit L4-dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells by creating experimental spinal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), we aimed to show the neuronal pathway between L4-DRG and femoral artery. SETTING: Ataturk University, Medical Faculty, Animal Laboratory, Erzurum, Turkey. METHODS: This study was designed on 20 rabbits, which were randomly divided into three groups: Spinal SAH (n = 8), SHAM (n = 6), and control (n = 6) groups. Animals were followed for 20 days and then killed. Vasospasm index values of the femoral artery and neuron density of L4-DRG were analyzed. RESULTS: The number of degenerated neurons in DRG was higher in the spinal SAH than the control and SHAM groups (p < 0.001). But, the difference between the control group and the SHAM group was not significant. Normal neuron densities were significantly lower in the spine SAH group compared to the SHAM and the control groups. There was a statistically significant increase in vasospasm index values of the spinal SAH group compared to the other two groups (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased volume of the femoral artery lumen was showed in animals with spinal SAH compared with control and SHAM groups. Increased degeneration of the L4 dorsal root ganglion in animals with spinal SAH was also demonstrated. Our findings might shed light on the planning of future experimental studies and evaluating the clinical relevance of such studies.