The effect of edaravone on a rat fracture model complicated with ischemia

Abstract

Background/Aim: Ischemia is a common issue in fracture healing due to vascular injury, compartment syndrome, and long-term tourniquet use. With ischemia-reperfusion injury, normal tissue repair can become complicated. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effect of edaravone on fracture union in a rat fracture model complicated with ischemia. Methods: We conducted our study on forty-four rats divided into four study groups and a control group, as follows: Group 1- Fracture, Group 2- Fracture-ischemia, Group 3- Fracture-ischemia-edaravone, Group 4- Fracture-edaravone, and Group 5- Control group. The control group comprised the contralateral intact tibia of the rats in Group 1 that were not complicated with ischemia and were not given edaravone treatment. The effects of edaravone on fracture healing were evaluated histologically, radiologically, and biomechanically. Results: There were no differences between the groups in terms of biomechanical and radiological indices, except for hardness values in the control subjects (Group 5), which were significantly higher than those of the other groups (P<0.05 for all). Similarly, in terms of histological evaluations of fracture healing between groups, group 3 has better improvement fracture healing scores than group 2 (P=0.042), and Group 4 has better improvement fracture healing scores than group 1 (P=0.049). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the administration of edaravone, independent of ischemia, had positive results on histopathological fracture healing.