EUROPEAN REVIEW FOR MEDICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES, cilt.17, sa.4, ss.522-530, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
BACKGROUND: Paraplegia due to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of the spinal cord is a devastating and undesired complication of thoraco-abdominal aortic surgery. Unidentified clots cause a variety of thromboembolic events and deteriorate the severity of ischemia. We investigated the effect of the degree of anticoagulation on spinal cord I/R injury and whether heparin is protective against I/R injury beside its anticoagulant properties.