European Journal of Anaesthesiology

Table of Contents - 2004 - Volume 21, Issue 03  


Original Article

Acute moderate hyponatraemia and its rapid correction: effects on striatal and pontine ultrastructure in an animal model of the TURP syndrome

S. Reuss a1c1, K. Bürger a2, H. Claus a2, T. Reinhardt a2, U. Disque-Kaiser a1, A. L. Depta a2, M. David a2 and H. W. Gervais a2
a1 Johannes Gutenberg-University, Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Mainz, Germany
a2 Johannes Gutenberg-University, Department of Anaesthesiology, School of Medicine, Mainz, Germany

Article author query
reuss s   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
bürger k   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
claus h   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
reinhardt t   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
disque-kaiser u   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
depta al   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
david m   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
gervais hw   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Summary

Background and objective: To investigate the effects of moderate hyponatraemia, induced by intravenous application of an electrolyte-free irrigation fluid, as a model of the human transurethral prostate resection syndrome and of its rapid correction by hypertonic saline infusion in rats.

Methods: Experimental animals received irrigation fluid (Purisole SM®) 20 mL kg−1 body weight, intravenously. In one group, hyponatraemia was subsequently rapidly corrected by infusion of hypertonic saline (NaCl 5.85%), while rats of group two were ‘sham-corrected’ by infusion of a balanced salt crystalloid solution. Plasma sodium concentrations were analysed during and at the end of the experiments. After 10 days, experimental and untreated control animals were killed humanely, fixed by perfusion and the brains were prepared for electron microscopic investigation of myelin sheets and glial cell numbers in the striatum and pons.

Results: The myelin appearance was unaltered in experimental groups compared to controls, but glial cell numbers were distinctly altered in the pons but not in the striatum. In the pons, oligodendrocytes were significantly reduced in number upon rapid correction of hyponatraemia, while astrocyte numbers were increased in rats with uncorrected hyponatraemia.

Conclusions: Our electron microscopic data demonstrate that the effects of hyponatraemia and of its rapid correction are multifarious in animals. This may also apply for human patients during transurethral prostate resection.

(Accepted May 2003)


Key Words: ANALYSIS, blood, sodium; BRAIN DISEASES, metabolic, myelinolysis, central pontine; NERVOUS SYSTEM, neuroglia; RATS.

Correspondence:
c1 Correspondence to: Stefan Reuss, Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of Mainz, D–55099 Mainz, Germany. E-mail: reuss@uni-mainz.de; Tel: +49 6131 3923207, Fax: +49 6131 3923719

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