The Effect of Lymphatic Blockage on Resolution of Vasogenic Brain Edema

Abstract

Between 1961 and 1974 the research group in Szeged established the relation of brain and extracranial lymphatics in animal experiments [4, 7]. The cervical lymph nodes and vessels were ligated in dog, cat, rabbit, and rat, and the animals were examined by means of neuropathological, neurochemical, neurophysiological methods. Learning disturbances, behavior changes, and slowing down of the EEG were observed, whereas the CSF pressure was elevated; in the brain edema of the white matter and semilunar gaps opening in the vessel walls were found. In 1975 the research group in Budapest performed experiments designed to examine lymphatic drainage of substances in the brain, implanting yttrium-90 (⁹⁰Y) rods into the deep white matter or applying it to the cortical surface in the same animal species. The Virchow-Robin spaces (VRS) were found to play the same role as the lymph vessels in the body outside the cranial cavity. The sudanophilic myelin breakdown substances moved in the VRS between the vessel walls toward the brain surfaces, entering the CSF space. After some hours the Sudan-positive material was detected in the upper third of the cervical lymph nodes which are known to communicate with the CSF space [5].