Compact Targeted Brain Cooling System

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts over two million Americans annually, and is the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Therapeutic hypothermia is a promising neuroprotective technique for treating TBI, but reduced body temperature is a threat to soldiers in military operations with multiple injuries. Mainstream has proposed a novel vapor compression cooling system that overcomes the key limitations of existing systems and provides selective brain cooling without impacting body temperature. This will provide TBI treatment without the accompanying negative side effects associated with reduced whole body temperature in a compact, portable system that can be applied at the point of injury and during transport.