A mathematical model for vasogenic brain edema.

A two-dimensional model of vasogenic brain edema was constructed using the FEM. The model incorporates the following physical parameters: cerebrovascular hydraulic conductivity, metabolic water production, tissue hydraulic conductivity and compliance, tissue and plasma osmotic and hydrostatic pressures, CSF hydrostatic pressure and absorption, intracerebral stress, and shift of brain tissue. These parameters, related by partial differential equations, were approximated numerically in time and space by the FEM. The results of computer simulation of brain edema by the FEM were compared with experimental data of cold injury brain edema in cats. Computer simulation predicted the observed changes in interstitial pressure, extension of edema, intracerebral stress distribution, and displacement.