Study Of Bacterial Translocation From Gut After Paraplegia Caused By Spinal Cord Injury In Rats

Objective: trauma and operation can lead to gastrointestinal paralysis. And disturbance of gastrointestinal motility following trauma may cause bacterial overgrowth in gastrointestinal tract and increase the incidence of bacterial translocation. These have been demonstrated by study on trauma and abdominal operation. This experiment is to investigate whether bacterial translocation from gut occurs after spinal cord injury. Methods: model of paraplegia was built up by injuring spinal cord of rat. The experimental group was rats of paraplegia, the control group was normal rats. the samples were collected at 12hr, 24hr and 48hr after spinal cord injury. Under aseptic manipulation, samples of blood , liver, spleen, mesenteric lymph node and intestinal contents were collected for bacterial cultures and endotoxin detection. The jejunum and ileum were observed by light and electron microscope.Results: bacterial translocation and endotoxemia appeared 24 hrs and 48 hrs after spinal cord injury complicating paraplegia. bacterial growth was found in MLN culture at 24 hrs post-injury and in blood, liver, spleen and mesenteric lymph node culture at 48 hrs post-injury with positive rates of 50% ,62.5%,75% and 100%respectively. Translocational bacteria were mainly bacillus coli, Enterobacter cloaca, Escherichia coli, Vulgaris and Enterococcus faecalis.Conclusion: bacterial translocation from gut would occur after spinal cord injury in rats, which indicated that antibiotics should be administered to paraplegic patients with spinal cord injury as soon as possible to prevent potential bacterial translocation.