Marked protection by selective cerebral profound hypothermia after complete cerebral ischemia in primates.

Hypothermia has been demonstrated to protect the brain from ischemia or traumatic brain injury. Achieving profound hypothermia has relied on techniques requiring total body cooling, which may result in serious cardiovascular and pulmonary complications. A technique to selectively cool the brain could conceivably exert a marked protection on cerebral structures and provide a relatively bloodless operative surgical field without systemic complications.