Sophisticated patient cooling system
to appear on NBC’s ER show
Device in clinical trial at University of Colorado Hospital
A patient cooling system developed by a Colorado company and currently being used in a clinical trial by University of Colorado Hospital physicians to reduce potential damage from critical illnesses will make a cameo appearance in an upcoming episode of the NBC television drama, ER.
The Arctic Sun® 2000, a temperature management system developed by Louisville, Colo.-based Medivance, Inc., is the first non-invasive patient cooling system that quickly and easily controls, monitors, and precisely maintains core body temperature in a therapeutic range. A growing body of research indicates that mild hypothermia can reduce damage from critical illnesses such as cardiac arrest, stroke and brain injury, researchers say.
The ER episode featuring the Arctic Sun will air Nov. 3 on NBC stations, showcasing the innovative system in use by medical staff aiding a seriously ill patient. The show’s producers said they wanted to portray the day-to-day challenges doctors face when caring for critically ill patients, and showcase the latest in medical technology.
Dr. Kennon Heard, a University of Colorado Hospital emergency department doctor who has used the Arctic Sun system with much success, said emergency physicians have known for years how to restart a heart following cardiac arrest and stroke, but preventing patients from suffering secondary brain damage while their heart is stopped has been more of a challenge.
Anecdotal evidence and medical research in recent years indicate that patients rescued from cold environments often have miraculous outcomes. Heard, who helped design Arctic Sun clinical research, said research indicates that inducing hypothermia or a hibernation-like state in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest slows the body’s metabolic rate and provides a window of opportunity for the brain to protect itself.
“ Patients have walked out of University of Colorado Hospital neurologically intact after suffering prolonged cardiac arrest that normally would have left them brain dead,” Heard said. “Through the use of the Artic Sun, which can both cool or warm a patient as needed, these patients appear to have lost no brain function. No current physician at the hospital can remember such good outcomes in any patient suffering prolonged cardiac arrest.”
University of Colorado Hospital is one of a handful of U.S. hospitals – and the only one in the Rocky Mountain West – using the Artic Sun.
