Intranasal Cooling for Encephalopathy Prevention in Combat Casualties (ICEPICC)

DoD personnel are at increased risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in both wartime and peacetime training incidents. Post-injury swelling (edema) is a common physiological complication of TBI which can result in added physical damage to the brain, increasing the risk of mortality, chronic encephalopathy (brain damage), and long-term disability in personnel suffering TBI. The proposed work intends to deliver a solution to prevent secondary effects of neurological injury via rapid, localized targeted temperature management. The Intranasal Cooler for Encephalopathy Prevention in Combat Casualties (ICEPICC) is a portable device that will enable intranasal cooling of the brain to be performed by medical professionals, by affixing a nasal cannula and temperature probe to the patient and setting the desired brain temperature on a simple user interface. ICEPICC delivers controlled cooled airflow to maintain normothermia for the duration of the treatment. ICEPICC is ideally suited to meet treatment needs, as it provides multiple improvements in ease of use, safety, and cooling effectiveness over other devices currently in development. The safety and efficacy of ICEPICC has previously been demonstrated in a pre-clinical study on an animal model. The proposed effort will redesign the system for clinical use, and then demonstrate its safety and efficacy in a human clinical trial performed by our collaborator Dr. Neeraj Badjatia at the University of Maryland Medical Center. With the data from this study, the effectiveness of ICEPICC to cool the brain will be demonstrated, providing new avenues for neurologists and other healthcare providers in the treatment of cerebral edema and other cerebral insults.