THURSDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- The hemoglobin-based oxygen-carrying solution HBOC-201 may help decrease secondary brain injury in traumatic brain injury patients with hemorrhage, according to research in animals presented this week at the annual conference of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in San Francisco.
Guy Rosenthal, M.D., of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues studied 20 Yorkshire swine that underwent brain impact injury and hemorrhage and were randomized to receive either resuscitation with HBOC-201 (6 mL/kg) or lactated Ringer's (LR) solution (12 mL/kg).
The researchers found that the HBOC-treated pigs had a higher mean arterial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure and brain tissue oxygen, and improved base deficit, compared to the LR group. They observed no significant group difference in total injury volume or in the mean number of Fluoro-Jade positive cells on the side of impact injury. But on the side opposite injury, they found a significant increase in Fluoro-Jade positive cells in the LR group compared to the HBOC group.
"If resuscitation with HBOC-201 can decrease secondary brain injury in traumatic brain injury patients with hemorrhage, it holds promise for improving outcome," Rosenthal said in a statement. "The use of HBOC for small-volume resuscitation may potentially be of greatest benefit in rural settings and combat situations where banked blood is not available and transport times are long."
Abstract
More Information
