Method of treating ischemic tissue

A method of treating tissue damaged by ischemia in an animal or human comprising the step of injecting intravenously into the animal or human with the tissue damaged by ischemia an effective amount of a solution of a surface-active copolymer with the following general formula:

• HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H
• wherein a is an integer such that the hydrophobe represented by (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O) has a molecular weight of approximately 950 to 4000 and b is an integer such that the hydrophile portion represented by (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O) constitutes from approximately 50% to 90% by weight of the compound.

A method of treating tissue damaged by ischemia in an animal or human comprising the step of injecting intramuscularly into the animal or human with the tissue damaged by ischemia an effective amount of a solution of a surface-active copolymer with the following general formula:

• HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H
• wherein a is an integer such that the hydrophobe represented by (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O) has a molecular weight of approximately 950 to 4000 and b is an integer such that the hydrophile portion represented by (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O) constitutes from approximately 50% to 90% by weight of the compound.