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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