[Cranio-cerebral hypothermia in the treatment of patients with cranio-cerebral injuries].

Within a set of therapeutic measures the authors employed cranio-cerebral hypthermia with the aid of an air hypotherm in 56 patients with severe skull-brain trauma. The temperature of the convexital cortex was reduced in the majority of cases to 28-30 degrees C, the rectal temperature being preserved at 33-34 degrees C. It was found that craniocerebral hypothermia should be employed in skull-brain injury patients as soon as the presence of a space-occupying intracranial formation requiring a surgical intervention is excluded, or immediately thereafter. The reduction of cerebral metabolism during the colling can be indirectly demonstrated by EEG changes and evoked potentials recordings.