New Cooling Method for Stroke Victims

A study has shown that a new cooling method inspired by space-age technology can effectively cool the brains of stroke victims while cooling the body at a much slower rate. The results were published in the February 2004 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Researchers measured the brain temperatures of stroke victims and found that using a liquid-cooled, soft-fabric helmet could quickly drop the temperature of patient's brains while slowly cooling the rest of the body. This selective cooling has the potential to limit brain injuries while sparing patients the risk of whole-body hypothermia. The method was developed by CoolSystems, Inc. (Berkeley, CA, USA; www.gameready.com). Because it is noninvasive and the portable model is easy to use, the method has the potential of greatly improving the early treatment and clinical outcomes of stroke patients. The company has also developed a cooling vest to help people lower their core body temperatures and has entered into a collaboration with the Stanford Stroke Center at Stanford University Medical Center (Palo Alto, CA, USA) to test a next-generation system.

"The CoolSystems cooling helmet represents an extremely promising approach to acute stroke therapy. We anticipate that this novel system will enable hypothermia therapy presently considered impractical or infeasible,” said Gary Steingberg, M.D., Ph.D, chairman, department of neurosurgery, Stanford University Medical Center.




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