简介：
Surgeons Try Cold Cutting for Critically Injured
“冷冻人体”手术，拯救重伤患者
A clinical trial tests whether induced hypothermia can allow surgeons to save critically wounded patients who would not survive surgery at normal temperatures. Erika Beras reports.
一项临床试验表明，降低病人的体温后再进行手术，或许可以救活普通情况下没有生还希望的病人。
撰文/播音 埃丽卡•贝拉斯（Erika Beras）
翻译 李轩
On rare occasions, a swimmer can survive a near-drowning because cold water has protected their brains—even if they were submerged for up to an hour. Now a clinical trial is testing whether extreme cold can save critically injured gunshot and knife wound patients.
人在溺水之后，冰冷的水下环境可以保护溺水者的大脑。在极少数情况下，一些溺水者即便身处水下长达1小时，也可以从死亡线上挣扎回来。研究人员想知道的是，低温是否也能拯救哪些身受重伤的病人，为此，他们最近进行了一项临床实验。
It’s called the Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation for Cardiac Arrest from Trauma Study. Lead Surgeon Sam Tisherman at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center explains that patients are not declared dead, but “They’d be close. They’re in cardiac arrest and certainly if we can’t get a pulse back they’d be dead. But we’re not waiting to the point where the surgeons would declare them dead. We’re trying to do this right before this, and find the best window of opportunity where our standard of care hasn’t worked but it’s not too late to try something new.”
这项名为“创伤后心跳停止紧急保护与复苏研究”（Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation for Cardiac Arrest from Trauma Study的试验由匹兹堡大学医学中心（ University of Pittsburgh Medical Center）负责。主刀医生山姆•蒂舍曼（Sam Tisherman ）解释道，即便医生没有正式宣布病人死亡，但他们也处在濒死阶段。“病人的心跳已经停止，如果我们无法及时地让他们的脉搏再次跳动起来，他们就真的死了。但我们不会坐等最后一刻的到来。这时一般的抢救方法已经无能为力，不过我们会找到最好的时机，以最快的速度尝试新的抢救方法。"
Surgeons will cool the patients’ bodies to 50 degrees by pumping dozens of liters of cold saline into the heart. This induced hypothermia nearly halts all activity in the body and brain.
医生会向病人的心脏注射数十升的冷盐水，将病人的体温降低到50华氏度（10摄氏度）。这种“冷冻人体”技术，会暂停病人身体和大脑几乎所有的生理过程。
By freezing patients, the surgeons will also freeze time—giving them the opportunity to repair wounds a warm patient wouldn’t typically survive. Should the procedure prove effective, it could give a new meaning to the phrase “cold comfort.”
在手术过程中，“冷冻”病人也能将时间“冻结”。医生将有足够的时间修复创伤，如果采用一般的手术，病人的身体在较高的温度下会很快衰竭，极可能没有生还希望。如果医生可以证明这种手术的效果，“冷冰冰”也终于能有些正面的意义了吧。
（题图来源：https://shanghaimetalcorporation.wordpress.com/tag/science/）
