Phase II: 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. Studies have demonstrated that rapidly lowering brain temperature can reduce the incidence and severity of intracranial edema as well as mortality and complications during treatment and recovery. Several approaches for achieving cooling have been successfully demonstrated in human and animal studies, but few options currently are on the market and none of these technologies are particularly well suited for military implementation. To fill this operational gap, Vivonics is proposing to develop ICEPICC (Intranasal Cooler for Encephalopathy Prevention In Combat Casualties), an intranasal cooling system based on forced cold-air convection, which is simple and well suited to the military environment because it is easily operated and supported in a wide range of settings and has shown to provide effective cooling.