A number of physiologic mechanisms of a homeostatic nature protect the brain under conditions of both ischemia and hypoxia. Through a mechanism termed autoregulation, there is a compensatory dilatation of resistance vessels in response to a reduction in cerebral perfusion, which maintains blood flow at a constant rate, as noted in Chap. 33. When the cerebral blood pressure falls below 60 to 70 mm Hg, an additional compensation in the form of increased oxygen extraction allows normal energy metabolism to continue. In total cerebral ischemia, the tissue is depleted of its sources of energy in about 5 min, although longer periods are tolerated under conditions of hypothermia. Also, energy failure because of hypoxia is counteracted by an autoregulatory increase in cerebral blood flow; at a Po2 of 25 mm Hg, the increase in blood flow is approximately 400 percent. A similar increase in flow occurs with a decrease in hemoglobin to 20 percent of normal.
In most clinical situations in which the brain is deprived of adequate oxygen, as already commented, there is a combination of ischemia and hypoxia, with one or the other predominating. The pathologic effects of ischemic brain injury from systemic hypotension differ from those caused by pure anoxia. Under conditions of transient ischemia, one pattern of damage takes the form of incomplete infarctions in the border zones between major cerebral arteries (Chap. 33). With predominant anoxia, neurons in portions of the hippocampus and the deep folia of the cerebellum are particularly vulnerable. More severe degrees of either ischemia or hypoxia, or the combination, lead to selective damage to certain layers of cortical neurons, and if more profound, to generalized damage of all the cerebral cortex, deep nuclei, and cerebellum. The nuclear structures of the brainstem and spinal cord are relatively resistant to anoxia and hypotension and stop functioning only after the cortex has been badly damaged.
The cellular pathophysiology of neuronal damage under conditions of ischemia is discussed in Chap. 33. One mechanism of injury is an arrest of the aerobic metabolic processes necessary to sustain the Krebs (tricarboxylic acid) cycle and the electron transport system. Neurons, if completely deprived of their source of energy, are unable to maintain their integrity and undergo necrosis. However, neuronal cell death occurs through more than one mechanism. The most acute forms of cell death are characterized by massive swelling and necrosis of neuronal and nonneuronal cells (cytotoxic edema). Short of immediate ischemic necrosis, a series of internally programmed cellular events may also propel the cell toward death in a delayed fashion, a process for which the term apoptosis has been borrowed from embryology. There is experimental evidence that certain excitatory neurotransmitters, particularly glutamate, contribute to the rapid destruction of neurons under conditions of anoxia and ischemia (Choi and Rothman); the pertinence of these effects to clinical situations is uncertain. Ultimately, this process may be affected by massive calcium influx through a number of different membrane channels, which activates various kinases that participate in the process of gradual cellular destruction. Free radical generation appears to play a role in membrane dissolution as a result of these processes. As shown in experimental models, one of the reasons for the irreversibility of ischemic lesions may be swelling of the endothelium and blockage of circulation into the ischemic cerebral tissues, the “no-reflow” phenomenon described by Ames and colleagues. There is also a poorly understood phenomenon of delayed neurologic deterioration after anoxia; this may be a result of the blockage or exhaustion of some enzymatic process during the period when brain metabolism is restored.
Clinical Features of Hypoxic Encephalopathy