Cool New Ideas to Save Brains

An anonymous reader writes "An estimated 700,000 Americans suffer strokes each year. Researchers are looking for ways to cool the head of a stroke victim while keeping the rest of the body at normal temperature; they've developed a nifty cool helmet to accomplish this. Cooling the brain essentially puts the brain in 'pause' mode, giving doctors time before damage from oxygen starvation occurs. This is similar to the way in which near-drowning victims do much better if they are in freezing water rather than in warmer water."

Comments

Injecting cool liquids?

[BladeMelbourne]

Just a few days ago, the television stations in Melbourne were broadcasting stories about ambulance officers injecting stoke victims with cooled liquids to limit brain damage.

I think a study is about to get underway - extent of brain damage and recovery times will be compared to those who have not been injected with cooled liquids.

Of course, ambulance response times need to be faster, otherwise the damage would already be done.

Try this

[spineboy]

Hold your hand in ice water for ten minutes and tell me if it's colder.

I bet it is

Russian heart surgery

[Noco]

It seems that I saw a science show about heart surgeons in USSR/Russia (I don't remember how old this was)who used this idea to perform open heart surgeries.

With the decline of the USSR, hospitals often went underfunded without complex heart/lung machines. Yet it is necessary to stop the heart during open heart surgeries. As a solution, doctors chill the person's body, packing the head in ice, and removing the blood replacing it with some chilled liquid. Then they have an hour after stopping the heart. Once finished, the slowly warm the person and apply a shock to restart the heart.

The detials might be wrong. It also seems like similar procedures are sometimes done in the States as well.

Migraine use?

[SolemnDragon]

I'm prone to migraines.

One thing that i can tell you about migraines is that, while individual results vary, almost anything that has an effect on blood pressure and blood flow can change a migraine for somebody. For many patient, an ice pack on the head and one on the back of the neck is the best way to start easing the pain.

I read this story and thought, this could be a treatment for otherwise debilitating migraines, especially for those people who have real trouble with triptan medications.

Don't know about y'all, but i'll be watching closely when they start using this for things like that. The milder extra pain caused by the cold is worth it compared to the ice pick throbbing of a migraine- it's even a relief, if you can get it 'instead' rather than 'as well...'