Effect of Steroid on the Development of Cerebral Edema in Experimental Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Kim, Byoung Kon; Yoon, Byung Woo; Jeon, Beom Seok; Lee, Sang Bok; Roh, Jae Kyu

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although steroid is one of the most widely used therapeutic measures for brain edema, its effect on brain edema after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) remains to be clarified. We performed this study to evaluate the efficacy of high dose methylprednisolone and conventional dose dexamethasone on the development of brain edema after experimental ICH.
METHODS
Fifty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 350-450 g, were used. ICH was made by stereotaxic injection of autologous arterial blood (0.13ml) into the right caudatoputamen. The animals were divided into three groups (n = 18 each). Group A received intraperitoneal(IP) injection of normal saline at 8-hour interval. Group B received dexamethasone (0.2mg/kg IP 30minutes after blood injection and 0.1mg/kg IP every 8h thereafter). Group C received methylprednisolone (30 mg/kg IP 30 minutes after ICH, 15mg/kg IP at 2 h after initial dose, and every 8h thereafter). We sacrificed the rat after 3 days and the development of brain edema was determined by measuring brain water content. We compared brain water content in each group.
RESULTS
Water content of the right hemisphere was slightly lower in the methylprednisolone-treated rats than other groups; mean + S.D. in group A, B, and C was 80.94 + 0.66%, 80.56 + 0.70%, and 80.42 + 0.91%, respectively. However, there was no statistical significance ( p > 0.1) by the ANOVA test. The difference of the mean water contents between the two hemispheres was slightly higher in the saline-treated group than other groups, but without statistical significance ( p > 0.1).
CONCLUSION
We could not find any significant reduction of the brain water content in the groups treated with steroid regardless of the doses. Our results do not warrant the popular steroid therapy in patients with ICH.