The effect of cold injury on the water and electrolyte content of brain and on the uptake of thiocyanate by cerebral tissues.

In the living animal, brain often swells greatly following trauma. There are two types of brain swelling: 1. One occurs very rapidly and is probably due to a dilatation of blood vessels or an increase in the cerebrospinal fluid volume or both. This is what Elliott and Jasper have referred to as 'inflation' (Elliott and Jasper, 1949). 2. The other is more chronic and is brought about by an increase in the water content of the cerebral tissues. Many experimental studies of cerebral edema have been published yet little is known about the basic mechanisms responsible for its production. At the same time there is a great need to gain some understanding of the beneficial effects of cortisone which has been used on an empirical basis to relieve the symptoms commonly attributed to cerebral edema (Galicich and French, 1961; Rasmussen and Gulati, 1962)