Protection from cerebral ischemia by brain cooling without reduced lactate accumulation in dogs

Hypothermia protects tissue function in ischemia. This study determined if selective brain cooling inhibits cerebral cortical lactate accumulation and thus accounts for imporved neurologic outcome after complete cerebral ischemia in dogs. The brain was selectively cooled (hippocampal temperature 33 degrees C) by nasal lavage with water at 5 degrees C. Control dogs received nasal lavage with water at 39 degrees C. Mean +/- SEM rectal temperature in both groups was 39 +/- 1 degree C prior to ischemia. Selective brain cooling before and during 10 minutes of cardiac arrest was associated with significantly improved neurologic function and 100% survival, whereas normothermic cardiac arrest produced marked neurologic dysfunction and 100% mortality. Cerebral cortical lactate accumulation was measured in a complementary series of dogs exposed to the same two treatments but with the addition of six cerebral cortical brain biopsies taken before, during, and immediately after cardiac arrest. Brain and rectal temperatures of dogs in the brain biopsy protocol were similar to those of dogs in the recovery protocol. There was no difference detected in cerebral lactate accumulation during ischemia between brain-cooled and control dogs. Thus, reduction in cortical brain lactate during ischemia cannot account for the postischemic functional protection afforded by preischemic selective brain cooling.