When antiepileptic drugs fail to control or substantially reduce seizures, surgery on the brain may be considered. During the surgery, cooling has shown to deactivate the central nervous system reversibly. In order to design and develop man-made cooling sensors to suppress epileptic activity, an understanding of the structure of the brain thermal behavior is necessary. A two-dimensional, transient, coupled heat transfer and flow impingement numerical model is used to estimate the contributions of different mechanisms of the brain cooling during cold-saline impingement on the surface of the brain. The model accounts for (a) conductive heat loss through the tissue and (b) property variations of the perfused tissue. The realistic extent of the cooling below the brain surface due to impinging saline is quantified. Cooling penetration depth is established based on the velocity parameters of the impingement fluid. Data shows that it is possible to rapidly cool brain tissue and stop seizures while attaining temperatures as low as 20 °C through shallow penetration depth without producing irreversible damage. The results of this study show the 20 °C cooling penetration depths obtained after 30 s of saline impingement on the brain. In addition, brain recovery time is calculated after cessation of brain cooling.
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