Did you know that Bruce Lee died from a cerebral edema? Probably so, but do you know what a cerebral edema is? I didn't until I started looking into it. here are the causes, symptoms, and treatments for a cerebral edema, just like the one that Bruce Lee passed away from.
Cerebral Edema Causes
Cerebral edema is the brain swelling. Cerebral edema is an increase in brain volume caused by an absolute increase in cerebral tissue water content. Diffuse cerebral edema may develop soon after head injury. Vasogenic edema arises from transvascular leakage caused by mechanical failure of the tight endothelial junctions of the BBB. Vasogenic edema is frequently associated with focal contusions or hematomas. It eventually resolves as edema fluid is reabsorbed into the vascular space or the brain edema and cerebral edema. Because the brain is housed within unyielding bone, any swelling can compress brain tissue until it suffers ischemia and necrosis. The most widely accepted explanation of cerebral volume dynamics is the Monro-Kellie doctrine, which states that the brain is part of a closed system encased in a solid mass of bone. The system's three components--the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and blood--coexist in a limited space inside the skull. The brain uses three types of compensation to maintain a stable state: pressure regulation (commonly called autoregulation), metabolic regulation, and CSF regulation.
Cerebral Edema Symptoms
Symptoms of a cerebral edema can include headache, loss of coordination (ataxia), weakness, and decreasing levels of consciousness including disorientation, loss of memory, hallucinations, psychotic behavior, and coma.
Cerebral Edema Treatments
The most rapid and effective means of decreasing tissue water and brain bulk is osmotherapy. Osmotic therapy is intended to draw water out of the brain by an osmotic gradient and to decrease blood viscosity. These
changes would decrease ICP and increase cerebral blood flow.
07-22-2008, 12:01 AM
Cerebral Edema: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments 
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