Porous medium bio-heat transfer modeling of hypothermia treatment in human brain

In this study we present a transient porous medium bio-heat transfer model of human brain and head region to simulate ischemic stroke and subsequent focused therapeutic hypothermia of the head. Partial geometry of the Circle of Willis (COW) and major veins in brain were constructed in a 3D model of head region. Scalp cooling with a cooling helmet termed as selective brain cooling (SBC) is employed as a cooling protocol. Results of finite volume method calculation on the domain suggested that SBC alone is ineffective to induce even mild hypothermia (35℃) but under extreme cooling conditions (<-20℃) of the coolant it would achieve target temp at superficial regions but not of deep brain. Intracarotid cold saline infusion (ICSI) is another cooling protocol simulated to attain the target temperature of the whole brain with 30 ml/min and 20 ml/min saline infusion rates respectively.