Cerebral blood flow in the monkey after focal cryogenic injury.

A focal cryogenic lesion was made in the left superior frontal gyrus of the anesthetized macaque brain. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was determined by the hydrogen clearance technique before and during the 4 hours following trauma. Local CBF in tissue adjacent to the lesion increased in the first half hour after the lesion was made and then decreased during the ensuing 3 1/2 hours. Local CBF in the contralateral superior frontal gyrus, as well as total CBF and oxygen consumption, were unchanged by cryogenic trauma. The spread of vasogenic edema into uninjured tissue probably accounts for the observed decrease in local CBF. This experimental model may assist in discovering therapy to alter favorably the spatial and temporal profile of pathologic CBF changes in tissue surrounding an acute lesion of the brain.