Doctors can 'revive' the brain-dead patient, but only 1 week

Brain-dead patients can be "revived" in a week, thanks to new scientists' techniques. By clicking a direct current through the skull, these people will be pulled out of a coma, able to move and communicate with the doctor or family.

Before that, the patients were all comatose for more than 3 months, their ability to recover was so low that they could choose humanitarian death.

Treatment with electric stimulation is now able to help them 'get back' within a week. But soon afterwards, all patients fell into the same state. Scientists have not dared to bring them 'back' for longer, for safety reasons.

Brain death patients can be "revived", but only for 1 week.

Revive the dead 'patients'

The method is called transcranial stimulation by direct current (TDCS) . In it, scientists put some electrodes just outside the skull, using electric current to affect the brain areas inside the patient's head.

Previously, this method has been used to enhance brain function for patients with severe injuries. They were awake but lost their ability to communicate because of paralysis.

In 2014, scientists used the TDCS to help about 15 of these patients move their hands or use their eyes to interact with people. However, this miraculous effect only lasts for 2 hours before all patients sink back to their original state.

New research published in Brain Injury is the first time that TDCS shows its ability to work with comatose patients, even brain dead and already in a similar state of plant life.

Led by the physiotherapist Aurore Thibaut at the University of Liège in Belgium, the experiment was a continuation of the group's previous study in 2014. This time, the scientists applied the TDCS to 18 kissing patients. heavy love.

They are people who have almost died brain, after an incident of skull injury, stroke or lack of oxygen to the brain. The awareness of the surrounding environment of all 18 patients was assessed at a very low level. Their condition lasted for at least 3 months and it is difficult to recover.

In this case, the patient may be entitled to humanitarian death. However, scientists at Liège University think that electrical stimulation can bring them back to life, at least for a period of 7 days.

They placed one-way electrodes above the patient's head, stimulating the prefrontal cortex with a 2mA electric loop. Each treatment lasts for 20 minutes and has 5 cycles in 5 days.

Transcranial stimulation by direct current (TDCS) will help patients "return".

Remarkable results were recorded from the first treatment session. Two of the patients showed signs of movement. After 1 week of treatment, 2 patients were able to communicate.

'They can't speak, but we can ask questions, such as' Is your name David?' And they answer yes or no by moving part of the body, the person is the tongue, the person is the leg , "Thibaut said. 'They answered all the questions we asked.'

Of the remaining patients, 9 also made progress showing that their condition has improved significantly. Awareness of consciousness reappears, including responding to a doctor's order, identifying an object and performing movement.

The 'resurrection' process of these patients lasted 1 week after the last burst of electricity ended. No one in the group of patients who used a lower level treatment for comparison showed signs of improvement.

Why does this method work?

The prefrontal cortex , in the past, has been identified by scientists as an area of ​​consciousness. This region of the brain is also linked to many other important centers, such as the hypothalamus, that help transmit signals to many larger areas of the brain.

For a normal-minded person, electrical signals are transmitted between areas of the brain like waves. But when someone is unconscious, this is completely impossible.

Patients with brain death in a coma, unable to move and communicate, but their cognitive signals remain and can be amplified. This is different from living patients, when they can respond to stimulation, but the conscious signal is no longer available.

Thibaut said that electrical stimulation will help boost signaling activity in comatose patients again, creating 'conscious' waves . In other words, TDCS works to enhance communication between different areas of the brain.

TDCS has the effect of enhancing communication between different areas of the brain.

Can they 'return' more than 7 days?

Test results have shown that 5 treatments lasting 20 minutes can bring 7 days of life to a comatose patient. This treatment threshold is quite large compared to current similar methods. Scientists have not dared to test longer-term treatments.

John Whyte, director of Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania, USA, said: 'This is an encouraging finding. Research shows that longer treatment leads to more sustainable improvement in patients' consciousness.

However, prolonging treatment time and increasing the current is a big risk.'We have to be really careful , ' said Thibaut. Currently, she and her team still do not know whether the current when piercing the skull has an effect outside the scope of the targeted target.

If the current is spread out, it can alter some other functions of the brain, which should not be changed. In other words, it can cause damage to a healthy area of ​​the brain.

Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether TDCS can bring patients to coma completely regain consciousness. Simply put, scientists have not been able to conduct more risky tests.