New ThermoSuit® Clinical Study Demonstrates Therapeutic Hypothermia Cooling of Patients in 37 Minut

Feb. 17, 2010 - PRLog -- Media Contact:
Lora Shipman
Life Recovery Systems
813.792.5505
LShipman@Life-Recovery.com

New ThermoSuit® Clinical Study
Demonstrates Therapeutic Hypothermia Cooling
of Patients in 37 Minutes

5 Times Faster than Reported in a Prior Study Involving Other Hypothermia Devices

New Results Published in Peer-Reviewed Journal Resuscitation

WALDWICK, NJ, Feb. 17, 2010 – Life Recovery Systems (LRS) is pleased to announce that a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Resuscitation demonstrates that LRS' patented hypothermia device -- The ThermoSuit® System-- cooled patients in a median time of 37 minutes.  This was approximately five times faster than the median cooling time reported in a similar study of other hypothermia devices previously published by Resuscitation.  The new ThermoSuit® study involved patients in three hospital sites in Austria and Canada and the results are published in an online Resuscitation article entitled “Rapid induction of therapeutic hypothermia using convective-immersion surface cooling: Safety, efficacy and outcomes”.  The new study, which will also be published in the print version of Resuscitation, was sponsored by LRS to investigate the use of the ThermoSuit System as a method to cool post-cardiac arrest patients in accordance with current AHA guidelines.  Survival was excellent, with 68% surviving to 6 months and 87% of survivors living independently at 6 months.

According to the new published study, ''[LRS'] convective-immersion cooling resulted in significantly shorter cooling times than previously reported. There was no control group in this study using an alternative cooling device, but this method appears to be much better than those reported in previous trials".

"We've been able to show that it is possible to cool patients in a safe and practical manner very quickly”, said clinical investigator Dr. Daniel Howes of Queens University in Kingston Ontario. “Rapid induction of hypothermia is one of the tools that will help us prevent injuries in a number of critical disease states." Life Recovery Systems President and co-founder Dr. Robert Freedman adds, "This is the first study of its kind to use the combination of Cerebral Performance Categories, Mini-Mental Status Exam, and Modified Rankin neurologic scoring methods; we are very pleased to see the high rate of favorable outcomes indicated by all of these measures and the absence of significant adverse events in this study”.

The rapid cooling capabilities of the ThermoSuit have previously been reported in other published studies. As ThermoSuit co-inventor Dr. Robert Schock explains, “The reason the ThermoSuit System cools so quickly is that it places the skin surface of the patient in direct contact with a thin layer of flowing cold water, a highly efficient principle known as convective-immersion surface cooling.  Since the water is above the freezing point, there is no risk of frostbite; this is not the case with methods that include the direct application of ice to the skin.”

The ThermoSuit System is cleared by the FDA for temperature reduction in patients where clinically indicated, e.g. in hyperthermic patients and for temperature monitoring.  It is CE marked and licensed by Health Canada. In 2009 the ThermoSuit earned a Medical Design Excellence Award in a design competition sponsored by Canon Communications, and it was named as one of “2009’s Top Five Innovative Devices” by medicaldevice-network.com.

For additional information about Life Recovery Systems and the ThermoSuit System, go to www.life-recovery.com.

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LRS specializes in the development of innovative medical devices for the emergency medical care market. LRS' mission is to save and preserve the quality of lives. The ThermoSuit® System was the recipient of a 2009 Medical Design Excellence Award.