Sulphanilamide and Sulphapyridine in Experimental Cerebral Wounds

THE local use of sulphanilamide and sulphapyridine in wounds is proving valuable both by preventing infection and in controlling established infection.These drugs may be expected to have the same bacteriolytic and bacteriostatic effects in cerebral wounds as in wounds of other tissues, for the reaction of the brain to wounding and infection is basically similar.The reaction of other tissues to these drugs has not prevented their use locally in wounds.Healing has been shown to be delayed slightly but not significantly.Acute inflammatory reaction in response to the presence of sulphanilamide or sulphapyridine has been transitory in most tissues even though large amounts of drug have been applied.In cerebral wounds the inevitable local reaction to any foreign material and the potential remote toxic effects on nerve cells, neuroglia, and myelin may make it undesirable to implant sulphonamides.The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether such undesirable local and remote reactions followed the introduction of large amounts of sulphanilamide or sulphapyridine into cerebral wounds, and if they were sufficiently marked to contra-indicate their use.Observations were also made on the time taken for the drugs to disappear from the wounds, the levels of each drug reached in the blood, and the reaction of the tissue to these two drugs.Experimental procedure Defects were made in the cortex and white matter of one or other cerebral hemisphere in a series of thirty cats.Twenty-four experiments were satisfactory for our purpose.Following the incision of the pia mater, cerebral tissue was crudely excised by blunt dissection.