LOCAL PROFOUND HYPOTHERMIA IN INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In most hemorrhagic strokes, cerebral vessels may bleed into brain tissue producing an intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). The presence of clot causes irritation of brain tissue, causing ischemia, necrosis, and edema. Currently, there is very little treatment available to a patient with ICH. Hypothermia treatment, as with whole body hypothermia, is impractical and involves significant complications. We propose to use local, profound hypothermia (15-18 C) to teat such ICH insults. This involves placement of a cooling device through a burr hole and coolinga local region of brain near the ICH to profound hypothermia levels. ICH occurs in about 85,000 cases in the US annually with poor outcomes: 58 percent of patients die within 30 days, while the majority of survivors suffer major neurological deficits. In Phase I, prototype devices will be designed, built, tested in vitro and used in a porcine animal model of ICH to test for efficacy. Functional assessment, histological measurements as well as imaging methods will be used. In clinical practice, the devices would allow for treatment of ICH patents in lobar hemorrhages, which make up about 40 percent of all ICH.