Loss of Autoregulation Produced by Cerebral Trauma

Abstract

Recent studies [3, 5] have demonstrated that blunt, non-necrotizing injury to the exposed brain followed by arterial hypertension caused acute brain swelling. It was postulated that cerebral autoregulation had been abolished or diminished by the trauma and that the subsequent increase in arterial pressure was transmitted to the capillaries and veins producing a large hydrostatic gradient across the capillary membrane with resultant cerebral edema. The present experiments were undertaken in order to investigate the autoregulatory ability of the brain following mechanical trauma to the cerebral cortex.