• Mehmet Resid Onen, Ulas Cikla, Ilhan Yilmaz, and Mehmet Dumlu Aydin.
• Neurosurgery. 2015 Aug 1;62 Suppl 1:202.

IntroductionCerebral arteries innervated by several systems contribute to the control of cerebral blood flow. Subarachnoid hemorrhage causes acutely developed vasospasm by various mechanical and neurochemical mechanisms, cranial parasympathetic nerve ischemia, and related stellate ganglion overdischarges. Dilatatory sensory fibers of cranial parasympathetic nerves and vasospastic fibers of stellate ganglions have a vasoregulatory effect on the cerebral arteries The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of sympathectomy on vasospasm of the middle cerebral artery.MethodsThis study was performed on 30 rabbits. Five of them were used as a baseline control group, 5 for a SHAM group, and 5 for an subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) group; the remainder were used as a study group (n = 15). A proportion of the middle cerebral artery wall sectioning surface values (Wall ring) to lumen surface values were accepted as the vasospasm index (VSI). The differences of VSI values of the middle cerebral arteries of all groups were analyzed using statistical methods.ResultsNoticed brain swelling, cortical ecchymosis, arachnoid-pia adhesions, and sulcal loss were detected in a gross examination of the brains. In histopathological examinations, endothelial cell loss, internal elastic membrane convolutions, muscular shortening with contractions, intimal edema, endothelial basal membrane detachments, periarterial clot formation, endothelial apoptosis, and severe vasospasm were detected in nonsympathectomized animals compared with the sympathectomized animals. Also, the mean VSI values were evaluated as 1.032 ± 0.054 in the control; 0.996 ± 0.198 in the SHAM without the sympathectomy; 0.732 ± 0.121 in the study group with the sympathectomy and 0.343 ± 0.760 in the study group.ConclusionSympathetic blockage may be a useful effect in the prevention of cerebral vasospasm and other complications of SAH.

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