Wednesday, May 2, 2012

New Technology to Minimize Brain Injury




This is a mechanical assist but it draws fluids of the brain allowing for a superior outcome when brain injury has occurred. This may allow a significant amount of heart attack caused brain injury in particular to be both stabilized and even reversed. The heart function itself is commonly recovered but the onset of cellular death in the brain continues the cycle of serious damage. Halting this and even partially reversing the damage almost immediately will save a large percentage of the present poor outcomes now been experienced.

I was startled to learn after my own major heart attack, just how lousy the outcomes were. Six years ago, no one understood that applying CPR kept minor blood movement going and that was enough to allow cellular survival. I went twenty minutes without a heartbeat but with diligent CPR applied for the duration. I was then kept in a coma for nine days and the blockage stented. No one expected recovery at all. I did recover and since then other examples have proven the conjecture with a present survival record of two and one half hours.

Thus if a victim can be kept on CPR until the heart is restarted, preventing further damage to the brain is the next issue. This tool is the obvious next step in saving a person's life.

Fifty percent do not survive a first heart attack and a portion of the rest are damaged. This should be and can be closer to seventy percent survival with plausibly fifty percent realizing full recovery.

Those statistics need to change because the economic loss is huge because it nails victims in their prime.

New technology shown to minimize brain injuries

By Ben Coxworth

15:45 April 19, 2012



When the brain receives a traumatic injury, irreversible damage occurs as the cells at the point of impact die. Injured cells surrounding the area then release toxic substances, which cause the brain to swell. This decreases blood flow within the brain, leading to lower oxygen levels, which in turn leads to more cell deaths. Recently, however, scientists from North Carolina’s Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have developed a new technique, that has greatly reduced the secondary cell deaths in brain-injured lab rats.

The process is known as mechanical tissue resuscitation (MTR), and it involves the application of negative pressure to remove fluids. In the study, the researchers placed a bioengineered material matrix directly on the injured area of the rats’ brains, then attached a flexible tube which was run into a computer-controlled vacuum pump. Over the next 72 hours, that pump proceeded to steadily draw off fluid released by the injured cells.

Afterwards, brains that were treated in this fashion showed considerably less in the way of swelling and toxic fluids, than those that were left untreated. The treated rats also lost over 50% less brain tissue than the untreated group, and were able to regain brain functions more quickly.

MTR should reportedly soon be ready for clinical trials. The scientists are also looking into its use on stroke and brain hemorrhage victims.

The research is being funded by the Department of Defense.

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