Traumatic Cerebral Edema

Abstract

THERE is no well established treatment for cerebral edema of traumatic origin. Experimental work has been hampered by lack of methods for the uniform induction and measurement of this type of edema. The present study was devoted to development of such a model in the rat and an evaluation of the therapeutic effects of dexamethasone. To test the efficacy of various agents in reducing intracranial damage secondary to head injury, an experimental method should meet several criteria: (1) the amount of damage produced should be controllable and uniform; (2) the method of measurement should be sensitive enough to detect small differences in the extent of the damage; (3) the whole brain should be examined since, as in human posttraumatic edema, experimentally induced edema may not involve the entire brain uniformly; and (4) to facilitate study of large numbers of animals, both induction and measurement of injury should be accomplished