Arctic Sun medical device

The Arctic Sun Temperature Management System is a medical tool used to initiate therapeutic hypothermia in order to lower a patient's body temperature to levels between 32-34 °C (89.6-93.2 °F). This form of mild hypothermia has been shown to be an effective all purpose neuroprotectant following what the literature calls an ischemic insult. [Polderman, Kees H. “Application of therapeutic hypothermia in the ICU.” Intensive Care Med. (2004) 30:556-575.] An ischemic insult can be characterized as any situtation where blood-flow to the brian ceases, an event typically caused by cardiac arrest, ischemic stroke, or brain trauma. After an ischemic event the inducement of mild hypothermia has been shown to substantially improve outcome. [Holzer, Michael. “Mild Hypothermia to Improve the Neurologic Outcome After Cardiac Arrest.” New England Journal of Medicine. (2002) Vol. 346, No. 8.] The Arctic Sun is produced by the Medivance company located in Louisville, Colorado.

Device operation

The Arctic Sun

Recently there has been an advance in non-invasive technology embodied by a medical device called the Arctic Sun. The Arctic Sun attempts to combine the non-invasive nature of water blankets with the precision and speed of catheters. This device consists primarily of a control module and connected gel pads. The gel pads stick to a patient’s body using an adhesive called hydrogel—a substance that adheres to the skin without removing hair follicles. When cooling a patient, the Arctic Sun’s gel pads cover only 40% of a patient’s surface area and subsequently leave most of the patient’s body free for augmenting medical procedures. A control module using negative pressure circulates water through these pads at a temperature between 4-42°C(39.2-107.6°F). Water is pulled through the pads rather than pushed, which in turn minimizes the risk of leakage. By controlling the temperature of the water running through the gel pads, the Arctic Sun’s control module can effectively bring a patient’s temperature to the desired level at a rate of 1.5 °C an hour. Through the use of a sophisticated computer algorithm, the Arctic Sun can achieve accuracy of .2 °C with minimal monitoring from medical professionals. This precision allows for slow and methodical rewarming and prevents excessive jumps in intracranial pressure. Yet, due to the Arctic Sun’s noninvasive nature, this precision is achieved with out the host of side effects associated with invasive procedures such as cooling catheters. [ [http://medivance.com/ Medivance ] ]

A serious complaint levied against the Arctic Sun relates to the risk of skin injury. Indeed, a study found that one in ten thousand patients treated with the Arctic Sun suffered from some form of skin incidence.Haugk, Moritz et al. “Feasibility and efficacy of new non-invasive cooling device in post resuscitation intensive care medicine.” Resuscitation (2007 75, 76-81.] Other researchers claim that catheters can lower body temperature at a faster rate, which is relevant because most of the clinical data suggests that the sooner cooling initiates the better a patient’s outcome. However, their exists a 75 minute delay on average between admittance and catheter insertion, while the Arctic Sun can be administered much quicker by unsupervised nursing professionals. [(Sterz-Dept of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Vienna March 2007) ] So although catheters cool at a quicker rate, because of early administration, most studies find that patients treated with the Arctic Sun reached their target temperature after roughly the same amount of time as those treated with catheters.

In May 2008, an incident involving this device received major news coverage, when a female patient in West Virginia suffered cardiac arrest, was pronounced dead, and then was revived using this device. [http://www.dailymail.com/News/200805200160 Son making funeral plans gets call that mom's alive: New apparatus helped stave off brain injury] by Zack Pettit, Daily Mail, Tuesday May 20, 2008. ]

ee also

*Therapeutic hypothermia
*Resuscitation

References

External links

* [http://www.medivance.com/html/Products/feat_benefits.html features page] at official website
* [http://www.medcompare.com/details/35037/Arctic-SunAndreg-2000-Temperature-Management-System.html Device specifications]