This study investigated the effects of topically applied dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to traumatized muscle of adult male rats. Eighty rats were randomly assigned to one of two groups and subsequently traumatized, treated, and sacrificed. One group was used to examine inflammation; the other, healing. Each group was fur ther divided into an experimental group (70% DMSO and 30% distilled water) and a control group (100% distilled water); each group had five sacrifice times. Each treatment consisted of painting 1 ml of either the treatment or control solution on the contused tissue. The inflammation group received 15 additional treat ments, 3 per day for the next 5 days. A three-phased, single blind, histologic examination was performed. The principle findings were: (1) significantly fewer healing cells were present in the experimental group than in the control group during the period inflammation was examined, and (2) no significant difference existed be tween the experimental and control groups during the period healing was examined.
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