Brain cooling could aid stroke recovery (Scotland)

Cooling the brain of patients who have suffered a stroke could dramatically improve their recovery, a group of Scottish doctors has said. They are joining others from across Europe who believe that inducing hypothermia in some patients can boost survival rates and reduce brain damage. Similar techniques have already been tried successfully on heart attack patients and those with birth injuries. Scientists are in Brussels to discuss a Europe-wide trial of the technique. To date, studies have involved the body of patients being cooled using ice cold intravenous drips and cooling pads applied to the skin. This lowers the body temperature to about 35C, just a couple of degrees below its normal level - BBC

New emergency technique saves a life

Early the morning of January 3, Agnes Phillips was sleeping next to her husband Bernie, when she noticed his breathing sounded strange. "I heard an irregular breathing sound, and I thought he was in the middle of a bad dream," recalled Agnes Phillips, 47, a chemistry teacher at Schenectady High School. She tried to awaken her husband. When she got no response, she called 911 and started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. Minutes later, emergency medical responders from Colonie and Latham arrived at the couple's Latham home and determined that Phillips had gone into cardiac arrest - the abrupt loss of heart function. Death usually begins within four to six minutes. They established an airway, got his heart beating again and rushed him to Albany Medical Center Hospital. Phillips then made history, becoming the first cardiac arrest patient in the Capital Region to be revived using therapeutic cooling - a process by which the temperature of the body is lowered to a near hypothermic state in order to prevent or reduce brain damage. - Daily Gazette Co

Doctors develop brain-cooling helmet

"One of the harshest side-effects of a stroke or a cardiac arrest is the death of a large number of neurons and glial cells, which can often lead to other, hard-to-treat complications, making recovery long-lasting and painful. Doctors are now working on a new way of preventing that from happening, and, while the new method does not address the underlying issue – the damage to the heart – it does help reduce some of its effects. A University of Edinburgh PhD student from the UK is currently testing a 'brain-cooling' helmet that works by inducing a mild state of hypothermia to patients. Taking the old principle of applying cold bandages to the head in order to relieve headaches a few steps further, Bridget Harris, the researcher behind this initiative, devised a helmet of sorts that takes advantage of the intricate network of blood vessels on the scalp, which regularly transport blood to the brain. She argues that cooling the blood before it reaches its destination makes the temperature of the brain go down by as much as 4 °C, to an average level of 33 °C." _ Softpedia

Sandy Springs, Georgia, gets new cardiac-care equipment

"Sandy Springs, Georgia, fire and ambulance rescue crews have started the new year with equipment that allows them to cool down the body of a cardiac-arrest patient to minimize brain damage. The program is considered innovative in that it provides this 'hypothermia treatment' before the patient reaches the hospital. 'Patients who suffer cardiac arrest out of the hospital most often die or have neurological damage because their brains have been starved of oxygen,' said Susan Kill, director of the emergency department at Saint Joseph's Hospital, one of the partners in the program. She said that in certain cases of cardiac arrest, in which a sufficient cardiac rhythm is restored, brain damage can be avoided by reducing the body core temperature by about 8 degrees Fahrenheit. This technique, accomplished through the use of cold packs placed on the body, minimizes brain injury, she said"

Thankful to be alive

"Marc Medina will be feeling a special warmth today, and he has his fiancee and doctors at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven, CT, to thank. Medina might not have been able to share this year's Thanksgiving at all after his heart stopped last month and his brain went without oxygen for several minutes. But a new technique brought his body temperature down to 89 degrees and helped prevent brain damage, and now he's back to running and working out. The future looks so bright that he and his girlfriend of two years, Jillian Trez, took a trip to New York three weeks ago to buy an engagement ring" - New Haven Register

Cardiac Arrest's Heartwarming Hope: Hypothermia

"Roughly 90 percent of the 300,000 people who suffer cardiac arrest in the U.S. each year die, but a growing body of research shows that cooling a patient's body to around 32-34 degrees Celsius (89-93 degrees Fahrenheit) after restarting the heart significantly improves survival. Doctors may use ice packs, cooling blankets, an intravenous drip of chilled saline solution or special catheters with refrigerated tips to lower the patient's core temperature and keep it there for up to 24 hours." - Miller–McCune