The effect of head cooling and remote ischemic conditioning on patients with traumatic brain injury.

Cerebral impairment caused by an external force to the head is known as traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim of this study was to determine the role of local hypothermia and remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) on oxidative stress, inflammatory response after TBI, and other involved variables. The present study is a clinical trial on 84 patients with TBI who were divided into 4 groups. The head cooling for 1.5 to 6 hr was performed in the first three days after TBI. RIC intervention was performed within the golden time after TBI in the form of four 5-min cycles with full cuff and 5 min of emptying of cuff. The group receiving the head cooling technique recovered better than the group receiving the RIC technique. Generally, combination of the two interventions of head cooling and RIC techniques is more effective on the improvement of clinical status of patients than each separate technique.