Scientists Propose Using Electromagnetic Fields to Treat the Brain After Traumatic Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries are a leading cause of sudden death among young people, according to Saratov State University named after N. G. Chernyshevsky. Every year, an estimated 60–70 million people worldwide experience not only primary brain damage caused by trauma but also secondary changes in blood flow through the organ’s capillaries and small blood vessels.

“After a brain injury, small blood vessels stop supplying the brain tissue properly. The tissue begins to ‘suffocate,’ the blood-brain barrier breaks down, and neurons die. These processes can develop over several hours to several weeks, while the increase in intracranial pressure associated with TBI makes treatment difficult even with the latest medications,” said study co-author Arina Evsyukova, a postgraduate student at the university’s Faculty of Biology and an engineer at SSU’s Scientific Medical Center, according to RIA Novosti.

Researchers from the university, together with colleagues from Privolzhsky Research Medical University, the P. A. Herzen Moscow Oncology Research Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and several universities in the United States, proposed using a pulsed electromagnetic field as an emergency treatment for patients with head injuries.

According to experiments conducted on laboratory animals, a single 30-minute exposure to the damaged brain helped normalize intracranial pressure, increased the brain’s “accessibility” to blood by one-third, and reduced the number of dying neurons by half.

“Using a pulsed electromagnetic field at 27.12 megahertz and 6 volts per meter, amplitude-modulated by three-millisecond pulses at a frequency of 5 hertz, prevented or substantially slowed the development of adverse processes in the brain and reduced brain tissue loss. It is important to emphasize that the adverse consequences need to be addressed immediately after TBI. We performed the procedure within one hour of the injury,” said Alexey Trofimov, senior researcher in the Department of Human and Animal Physiology at SSU and a researcher at Privolzhsky Research Medical University.

The university noted that devices designed to provide “electromagnetic” first aid after traumatic brain injuries already exist.

“At this stage, we have obtained preclinical proof of concept for targeting a key unresolved component of acute brain injury — microvascular dysfunction. If the effect is confirmed in larger and longer-term studies, it could become an additional tool for protecting the brain during the critical first hours after an injury,” Trofimov added.