Traumatic brain edema: an overview

This article provides a brief summary of concepts describing the formation and resolution of traumatic brain edema. Recent laboratory and clinical data are reviewed targeted toward resolving the contribution of edema to the swelling process. These data, indicate that blood volume is reduced in areas of ischemia following traumatic injury and edema volume is increased. Thus, edema is the major contributor to the swelling process in diffuse injury. As clinical MRI studies have not revealed barrier compromise in the presence of swelling, it is considered that other forms of edema, primarily ischemic and neurotoxic, make a substantial contribution to the edema volume.