46
prefer that you put it in the record and let it appear there in full,
and that you summarize your knowledge of this subject.
Whatever you prefer to do, we would be glad to have you do.
STATEMENT OF DR. JACK DE LA TORRE, ASSOCIATE PROFES-
SOR OF NEUROSURGERY, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE
Dr. DE LA TORRE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to try to be brief in my
statement because I know you may have some additional questions
of myself or the other witnesses.
By way of background, I would like to give you a capsule sum-
mary of our experiences with DMSO, which span back 10 years and
include more than 500 animals, four different animal species, and
various models of neurological trauma.
We began these experiments in 1971 when we were looking for a
drug that might be effective for head trauma. The following year
we applied these observations to spinal cord surgery.
I would like to summarize the effects and properties that DMSO
had on these two model injuries.
First of all, we noticed that there was a significant reduction of
intracranial pressure, and I may point out that this is one of the
devastating consequences of head injury. If DMSO were effective
only for decreasing intracranial pressure, it would still be a very
useful drug.
Following these experiments, we also noted that in our head
injury model, there was an improvement in cortical flow within 30
minutes after the animal had reached an end point.
There was also an increase in the carotid flow to the brain. The
carotid arteries are two blood vessels that bring blood to the brain.
We noticed there was a significant increase in the carotid flow in
the DMSO treated animals as opposed to those animals that were
treated with something else.
DMSO also appeared to stabilize the electroencephalogram. In
these model injuries, the animals are brought to a point where the
electroencephalogram becomes flat. This is a point preceding brain
death and eventual death of the animal.
Following 10 minutes after the administration of DMSO, the
electroencephalogram returned and was active.
DMSO also stabilized blood pressure in these animals. This is an
important point because following head injury or spinal cord injury
there is always an increase in blood pressure in both animals and
humans, and if you cannot control this blood pressure, it may lead
to death.
There was also an increase in the respiratory pattern of these
animals. The animals appeared to breathe deeper and faster. This
again is a good effect because in many brain injury patients or
animals, respiration becomes very shallow and may eventually
stop.
We confirmed the data that Dr. Jacob had shown some years
earlier on the urine output. DMSO increased the urine output by
five times when you compared it to other treatments.
These initial experiments then led us to expand our observations
on a permanent spinal cord injury model and on cerebral stroke.
