Modeling Primary Blast Injury in Isolated Spinal Cord White Matter

Primary blast injury (PBI) is a common injury associated with present military conflicts and leads to significant neurological deficits. In order to prevent and treat this injury, an appropriate understanding of the biological response is required. A blast wave generator was created as an experimental model to elucidate this response by creating a repeatable blast injury on ex-vivo guinea pig spinal cord white matter. Subsequently, this study defines approximate limits for blast force and provides a relationship between axonal damage, nerve conduction parameters and functional recovery. Action potential generation and physical deficits of spinal cords exposed to blast injury were measured using a double sucrose gap-recording chamber and a dye-exclusion assay. Results express an inverse correlation between the severity of blast injury and degree of recovery. Such an approach is expected to contribute significantly to the detection and prediction of functional deficits by providing a critical analysis of nerve damage in order to effectively devise and implement repair techniques for PBI.