Field Cooling System for Therpeutic Hypothermia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent clinical research indicates a significant benefit to neurological outcomes associated with mild therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. Presumably, the sooner such treatment can begin, the greater the potential benefit and the greater the number of patients who might benefit. However, there is presently no practical way for paramedics or first responders to provide cooling for hypothermia in the field. Mechanical cooling systems are power hungry, heavy, and expensive. Ice and chemical ice packs have many obvious practical problems with field storage, transport, patient treatment when wet, and lack of temperature control. In the proposed effort, a novel spacesuit cooling technology will be adapted to provide a reliable, lightweight, inexpensive, very low power, easily controlled cooling source that will enable mild therapeutic hypothermia treatment to begin early in the field immediately after cardiac resuscitation. The proposed cooling system is based on regenerable heat absorption. During Phase I, a proof-of-concept cooler with a capacity of approximately 200 W-hr of refrigeration and a cooling pad will be fabricated and demonstrated in bench top and animal experiments. During Phase I, a complete prototype will be developed and demonstrated.