Abstract
The beneficial effects of mild-to-moderate hypothermia in experimental models of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been demonstrated in many laboratories [4,11,21,40,45,67]. Using models of diffuse and focal injuries, brain cooling has been shown to both protect against neuronal damage and improve behavioral outcome. Recently, post-traumatic hypothermia has also been reported to protect against axonal damage [39,43]. In addition, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) consequences of TBI are also attenuated by moderate hypothermia [37,57]. Taken together, these investigations using different animal models and various morphological and functional endpoints emphasize how remarkably effective hypothermia can be in protecting the brain. Importantly, these experimental findings with therapeutic hypothermia have been supported by clinical data where hypothermic protection has been demonstrated in patients with severe brain injury [12,13,42].