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Posted on Sep 30, 2002, 6 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Lowering the temperature of stroke victims may help to reduce brain damage caused by the stroke and limit further damage caused by clot-busting drugs designed to restart blood flow - a phenomenon known as reperfusion damage. Results of a recent study have shown that inducing mild hypothermia in a patient is both safe and effective.
Lowering the temperature of stroke victims may help to reduce brain damage caused by the stroke and limit further damage caused by clot-busting drugs designed to restart blood flow - a phenomenon known as reperfusion damage. Results of a recent study have shown that inducing mild hypothermia in a patient is both safe and effective. Researchers studying 19 stroke patients who had shown little or no improvement after being given the clot-busting drugs, induced hypothermia in ten of the patients and compared their progress with the remaining nine, who were not cooled. When researchers checked the progress of the patients at 3-months, they found that cooled patients had significantly lower levels of disability. On the scale of nought (normal) to six (death) cooled patients scored an average of 3.1 compared to the 4.2 averaged by the non-cooled group.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 3rd August 2001
