Abstract： Objective To explore the therapeutic effects of local mild hypothermia for acute cerebral infarction(ACI). Methods 99 hospitalized patients with ACI form January 2006 to July 2009 were randomly divided into mild hypotherrmia group(therapy group,n =52) and control group(n =47). All the patients were treated with routine medication,while those in therapy group patients were aslo treated local mild hypothermia. Before treatment,the 10th and 30th day after treatment ,the neurological deficits and activity of daily living(ADL) were evaluated according to European Stroke Scale(ESS) and Barthel Index respectively,and were evaluated according to Barthel Index on the 90th day. Results On the 10th and 30th day the increase rate of ESS was evaluated. On the 30th day,there was significant difference between the therapy group (74. 4 ± 13. 8) and controll group (65.0 ± 17.6) (t = 3. 121,P ＜ 0.01).On the 10th and 30th and 90th day the improvement of ADL was observed. The increase rate of ADL was(39.2 ±32. 2,59.3 ±29. 7,64. 0 ±31.5) in the therapy group and(23.9 ± 19. 8,49. 3 ±27. 3,56. 0 ± 30. 1) in the controll group (t = 2.611 ～ 2.73.6, P ＜ 0.05 ～ 0.01). The effective rate of the therapy group was 78. 8%, and the effective rate of the controll group was 46. 7%. There was significant difference between the therapy group and the controll groups (x~2 = 10. 953, P ＜ 0.01). Conclusion The local mild hypothermia is more effective than those in the controll group for ACI.