Brain Injuries?

In the late seventies I suffered a serious head injury. And that's all I going to say about that!

I heard sometime ago that they are now treating people with serious head injuries by:
They put the body in a very cold environment (don鈥檛 know how) for a set time. Apparently this slows down the damage to the brain. Hence far fewer complications and a quicker recovery time?

Have I heard this correct? And what are the medical advances in treating this type of injury from thirty five years ago?

Many thanks

I do mean with fairly recent head injuries.
Like a couple of hours ago.

As an RN that has worked in theatre in the past and including neurosurgery, the practice for operations is to cool the person down by dropping the temperature in the theatre and leaving the pt with a only sheet on (it gets dammed cold in there).. i cant tell you specifally if the brain itself is cooled down, but cooled IV fluids and monitoringof the body's temperature can specify whether the external environment needs to be cooler. From memory, the body gets cooled down from the usual 35.5 - 37 degrees celsius to approximetly 34 degrees celsius..
that therefore reduces the body's metabolism and the body 'shuts down' in a way so the brain is the main source of purfusion that the body focuses on and that it shuts down to primal functions...
following the surgery, if the surgeon deems the person to be still unstable, the pt will be kept asleep in an induced coma, because there is less brain usage when in induced coma.. (but thats not my area.. you should ask an ICU nurse or Doctor)
if someone is in a serious trauma, efforts can be made to keep the person cool through IV fluids and the external environment.. that means that the brain is what you could call in a dormant state until the surgery (usual case)..

once the surgery is over or when the surgeon or medical team deems that the pt is stable enough, they will warm the person to normal temp...
im not sure what that would mean for you because i have seen the hypothermia buisness in acute environments..

you should talk to your doctor! they should know specifically the physiology involved.. and the various techniques used..

hope this helps :)

I would imagine this sort of treatment is used for recent brain injuries, to impede cranial bleeding. I don't think that it would do anything for something that happened long ago. The good news is that, when it comes to cognitive function, it's not what you have, it's how you use it. Dendrite stimulation is the key. Try brushing your teeth with your weak hand, draw a picture with your toes, or even drive a different way home from work. That stimulates more complex wiring of your brain's dendrites.

Possible resources.