Device for applications of selective organ cooling

• US 6,251,130 B1
• Filed: 12/16/1998
• Issued: 06/26/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Zoll Circulation Incorporated (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Innercool therapies Incorporated (Taxus Cardium Pharmaceuticals Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lasheras, Juan C., Werneth, Randell L., Dobak, John D. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Dvorak, Linda C. M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kearney, R.
• Application Number:
  US09/215,040
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• Field of Search: 604/103.08, 604/164.06, 604/165.01, 604/165.02, 604/165.03, 604/165.04, 604/166.01, 607/105, 607/106, 606/20-26
• US Class Current: 607/105
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2007/0056 for cooling
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2007/126 for invasive application, e.g. for introducing into blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 7/12 Devices for heating or cooling internal body cavities

Abstract

The invention provides a method and device for selectively controlling the temperature of a selected organ of a patient for performance of a specified application. The method includes introducing a guide catheter into a blood vessel. The guide catheter may have a soft tip and a retaining flange, and may be used to provide treatments such as administration of thrombolytic drug therapies, stenting procedures, angiographic procedures, etc. A supply tube is provided having a heat transfer element attached to a distal end thereof. The heat transfer element having a plurality of exterior surface irregularities, these surface irregularities having a depth greater than the boundary layer thickness of flow in the feeding artery of the selected organ. The supply tube and heat transfer element may be inserted through the guide catheter to place the heat transfer element in the feeding artery of the selected organ. Turbulence is created around the surface irregularities at a distance from the heat transfer element greater than the boundary layer thickness of flow in the feeding artery, thereby creating turbulence throughout the blood flow in the feeding artery. A working fluid is circulated into the heat transfer element via the supply tube and via an internal lumen of the heat transfer element. The fluid may be circulated out of the heat transfer element via an external lumen of the heat transfer element and through the guide catheter. Heat is thereby transferred between the heat transfer element and the blood in the feeding artery to selectively control the temperature of the selected organ during or soon before or after the specified application.

Claims

1. A selective organ heat transfer device and guide catheter assembly, comprising:

a guide catheter capable of insertion to a selected feeding artery in the vascular system of a patient, the guide catheter having a soft tip and an interior retaining flange at a distal end;

a flexible supply tube capable of insertion in the guide catheter;

a heat transfer element comprising a plurality of heat transfer segments with a flexible joint connecting each of said heat transfer segments to adjacent heat transfer segments, said heat transfer element attached to a distal end of the supply tube, the heat transfer element having a flange at a distal end, the flange capable of engagement with the retaining flange to prevent the heat transfer element from disengaging with the guide catheter; and

a plurality of exterior surface irregularities on the heat transfer element, the surface irregularities being shaped and arranged to create turbulence in surrounding fluid, the surface irregularities having a depth at least equal to the boundary layer thickness of flow in the feeding artery.

2. The assembly of claim 1, further comprising a strut coupled to the supply tube at a distal end thereof.

3. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the flexible joint comprises a joint selected from the group consisting of a bellows, a metal tube, a plastic tube, a rubber tube, and a latex rubber tube.

4. The assembly of claim 1, wherein:

the surface irregularities comprise a helical ridge and a helical groove formed on each the heat transfer segment; and

the helical ridge on each the heat transfer segment has an opposite helical twist to the helical ridges on adjacent the heat transfer segments.