ABSTRACT
The central nervous system is an important target of decompression sickness; spinal cord injury is a particularly common manifestation of central nervous system involvement. The long-term goal of the work to be discussed here is to elucidate the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury and to develop the means to block the development of neurological deficits and enhance recovery. This chapter discusses the approaches used to quantify spinal cord injury, namely, functional analysis of gait and electrophysiologic measurements of evoked potentials. It reviews experiments performed in the rat model to assess the role played by ischemia and autochthonous bubbles in spinal cord injury. The chapter discusses experiments designed to test the hypothesis that the formation of intravascular gas induces the recruitment of leukocytes and the activation of endogenous effector cells in the cord. The role of ischemia in decompression-induced spinal cord injury was evaluated by measuring blood flow to the central nervous system and other organs.
