Cooling blankets 'prevent heart attack brain injury'RSS Feed

Cooling blankets could be used to prevent brain injury during heart attack, it has been reported.

The cold blanket is filled with chilled liquid which cools body temperature a few degrees, inducing hypothermia, reports the Sun Sentinel.

This treatment lessens the oxygen needs of brain cells and keeps organs from deteriorating, according to doctors at Broward General Medical Center in Florida, which employs the technology.

The patient remains in this state for around 24 hours before being warmed up again.

Dr Nabil El Sanadi, of Broward Health, told the publication: "It's one of the most important things that has come out in the last 20 years."

According to the expert, the use of emergency coolants in cardiac arrest patients has increased healthy survival rates to 40 per cent.

This follows news of a non-invasive brain temperature measuring device set to assist doctors in their treatment of traumatic brain injury, reported in a study presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver.

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Posted by John Sherrington
 

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