An On-Site Thermoelectric Cooling Device for Cryotherapy and Control of Skin Blood Flow

Mejía, Natalia; Dedow, Karl; Nguy, Lindsey; Sullivan, Patrick; Khoshnevis, Sepideh; Diller, Kenneth R.

doi:10.1115/1.4029508

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The range may be as small as 2 C or exceed 9 C. This phenomenon is compounded by the complex temporal coupling between locally applied temperature and the alterations to blood flow elicited in underlying tissues that are critical in determining the physiological response to cryotherapy. The use of onsite solid state refrigeration modules provides promise for more precise temperature control as well as greater protocol versatility and predictability [81].…”

Section: Local Temperature Therapy To Aid Healing Of Superficial Tissmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have adapted various CTU systems, as well as onsite thermoelectric solid state refrigeration [81], to apply alternating cooling and heat boundary conditions to skin and have measured the blood perfusion response in the underlying tissue. Figure 12 presents surface temperature and blood perfusion data from one such trial.…”

Section: Local Temperature Therapy To Aid Healing Of Superficial Tissmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heat Transfer in Health and Healing1

Diller

2015

Journal of Heat Transfer

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1Our bodies depend on an exquisitely sensitive and refined temperature control system to maintain a state of health and homeostasis. The exceptionally broad range of physical activities that humans engage in and the diverse array of environmental conditions we face require remarkable strategies and mechanisms for regulating internal and external heat transfer processes. On the occasions for which the body suffers trauma, therapeutic temperature modulation is often the approach of choice for reversing injury and inflammation and launching a cascade of healing. The focus of human thermoregulation is maintenance of the body core temperature within a tight range of values, even as internal rates of energy generation may vary over an order of magnitude, environmental convection, and radiation heat loads may undergo large changes in the absence of any significant personal control, surface insulation may be added or removed, all occurring while the body's internal thermostat follows a diurnal circadian cycle that may be altered by illness and anesthetic agents. An advanced level of understanding of the complex physiological function and control of the human body may be combined with skill in heat transfer analysis and design to develop life-saving and injury-healing medical devices. This paper will describe some of the challenges and conquests the author has experienced related to the practice of heat transfer for maintenance of health and enhancement of healing processes.

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Section: Local Temperature Therapy To Aid Healing Of Superficial Tissmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Local Temperature Therapy To Aid Healing Of Superficial Tissmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat Transfer in Health and Healing1

Diller

2015

Journal of Heat Transfer

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“…Theoretically, the persistence of vasoconstriction may be the main cause for coping with soft tissue injuries, through modulating swelling, pain, inflammation, metabolism, muscle spasm, and bleeding (Bleakley et al 2004 ; Schaser et al 2007 ). In practice, the dressing of low temperatures on the skin surface effectively enhances the healing of soft tissue injuries (Mejia et al 2015 ). Therefore, the application of lower temperatures can reduce the need for pain medications and promote recovery (Trobec et al 2008 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compressive cryotherapy versus cryotherapy alone in patients undergoing knee surgery: a meta-analysis

et al. 2016

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AimThis study aims to conduct a meta-analysis to identify and compare the effectiveness of compressive cryotherapy and cryotherapy alone for patients undergoing knee surgery.BackgroundPostoperative management is an important guarantee for the success of surgery. Cryotherapy and compression are two common nursing techniques after knee surgery, and are considered to be effective for postoperative clinical symptoms such as local pain and swelling. However, no previous meta-analyses have compared the effectiveness of compressive cryotherapy and cryotherapy alone in patients undergoing knee surgery.DesignA meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).MethodsWe conducted a search in MEDLINE (via Pubmed, 1990–2014), EMBASE (via Elsevier, 1990–2014), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library, 1990–2014), CINAHL (1990–2014) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1990–2014) databases for RCTs published in English and Chinese. The primary outcome measure of interest was visual analog scale and girth measure. Finally, a meta-analysis was carried out using RevMan 5.3.ResultsAmong the 593 RCTs, 10 RCTs were selected and included into this study. These studies included 522 patients who underwent knee surgery. Patients who underwent compressive cryotherapy tended to have less pain than patients who underwent cryotherapy alone at POD2 and POD3, while compressive cryotherapy had a strong tendency towards less swelling over cryotherapy alone at POD1 and POD2. However, there was no significant difference between compressive cryotherapy and cryotherapy alone at the intermediate stage of rehabilitation after knee surgery. All adverse reactions were recorded in all included RCTs.ConclusionCurrent evidence suggests that compressive cryotherapy is beneficial to patients undergoing knee surgery at the early rehabilitation stage. At the last stage, the effectiveness of compressive cryotherapy and cryotherapy alone were found to be similar.

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“…The cryotherapy procedure induces a low temperature on the skin surface to improve the fast recovery of soft tissue injuries. Cryotherapy heals the injured tissues in multiple mechanisms, such as slowing inflammatory process [70], reduced nerve conduction velocity [71] resulting in a decrease of pain, and less swelling by induction of blood pressure. Traditional practice involves the use of chilled water pumped through ice packed container with cooling wrap, gel packs to retain the cold, which has limitations in the time and temperature control.…”

Section: Cryotherapymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much more sophisticated system involves insulated ice cooled box with recirculating water or compressor-based refrigeration. By contrast, a study by Mejia [71] employed a TED cooling module with direct contact with the tissue to be treated. The clinical study was on 12 humans with the proposed TED cooling device, as shown in Figure 6b.…”

Section: Cryotherapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermoelectric Materials—Strategies for Improving Device Performance and Its Medical Applications

Mohankumar¹,

Babu²,

Subramanian³

et al. 2019

Sci

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Thermoelectrics, in particular solid-state conversion of heat to electricity and vice versa, is expected to be a key energy harvesting and temperature management solution in coming years. There has been a resurgence in the search for new materials for advanced thermoelectric energy conversion applications and to enhance the properties of existing materials. In this paper, we review recent efforts on improving figure-of-merit (ZT) through alloying and nano structuring. As heatsink characteristics dictate the performance of thermoelectric modules, various types of heatsink designs has been investigated. Several reported strategies for improving ZT are critically assessed. A notable increase in figure-of-merit of thermoelectric materials (TE) has opened up new areas of applications especially in the medical field. Peltier cooling devices are widely employed for patient core temperature control, skin cooling, medical device and laboratory equipment cooling. Application of these devices in the medical field both in temperature control and power generation has been studied in detail. It is envisioned that this study will provide profound knowledge on the thermoelectric based materials and its role in medical applications.

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An On-Site Thermoelectric Cooling Device for Cryotherapy and Control of Skin Blood Flow

Cited by 10 publications

References 21 publications

Heat Transfer in Health and Healing1

Heat Transfer in Health and Healing1

Compressive cryotherapy versus cryotherapy alone in patients undergoing knee surgery: a meta-analysis

Thermoelectric Materials—Strategies for Improving Device Performance and Its Medical Applications

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