A human being undergoing treatment with cytostatica (chemotherapy) or a similar treatment often suffers of loss of hair. By maintaining during the treatment a low temperature on the hairy region, usually the scalp, such loss can be eliminated or substantially reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,059 discloses a head cooler for this purpose comprising a refrigeration unit and a head cover to be placed over a patient's scalp for enclosing the patient's head and neck, flow passages for circulating a fluid coolant supplied by the refrigeration unit, through the device being provided internally of the cover which forms an inside heat exchange surface to be applied against the scalp. A cooling system of this kind for enduring chemotherapy treatment is marketed under the trade mark DigniCap by Dignitana AB, a Swedish company of Malmö, Sweden. The refrigeration unit included in this cooling system has connections for connecting to the unit two separately continuously temperature controlled cooling sections of the cap.
It has been found that also nail changes are a common side effect of systemic chemotherapy, including discoloration, ridging or pitting of the nails and, as the most severe toxic effect in this respect, partial or complete loss of nails or pain in the nail beds of the patient's hands or feet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,801 and WO 99/470 11 describe a glove fitted to a human hand and having a pocket on the palm side or back-hand side of the glove receiving a thermal gel-filled pack adapted for repeated heating and cooling, uncontrolled transmission of heat or cold taking place from the gel-filled pack to other parts of the hand for therapeutic or other purposes.
The present invention relates to method and device for controlling the temperature of defined local regions of a patient's body.
The object of the invention is to alleviate or eliminate the inconvenience or pain suffered in the nails of hands and/or feet by a patient undergoing chemotherapy by allocation of the cooling effect to the site or sites from which the pain or other inconvenience emanates i. e. particularly the nail bed on hands and/or feet, and by accurately controlled local cooling of said site or sites in order to effectively utilize the cooling effect for therapeutic purposes.
This object is achieved by the method defined in claim 1.
A device for controlling the temperature of defined local portions of the body of a patient undergoing chemotherapy according to claim 2 is characterized by a heat insulating body forming cavities for receiving therein the patient's fingers and/or toes, and by passages internally of said body for flowing a fluid coolant through regions in heat exchanging relation to said cavities receiving the nails of the patient's fingers or toes when inserted into the cavities
Further features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.
In the accompanying drawings which disclose illustrative embodiments of the method and device according to the invention,
The device shown in
The interior space 11 in body 10 is divided by a partition 17 into two compartments 18 and 19 on the upper and lower side of the partition, respectively, compartment 18 being connected to a hose or tube 20 for supply of fluid coolant and compartment 19 being connected to a hose or tube 21 for withdrawal of the coolant from the interior of body 10. Thus, the fluid coolant is forced to circulate through the interior space 11 of body 10 in heat exchanging contact with the heat conducting material 12 cavities 13 to 16 being cooled by the circulating fluid coolant which is delivered from a refrigerating unit and then after passage through the interior of body 10 is returned to the refrigerating unit.
Temperature sensors 22 and 23 are mounted to the outside wall of cavities 13 and 14 and the temperature and flow of the coolant is controlled in dependence of the temperature sensed by these sensors in order to maintain in cavities 13 to 16 the temperature necessary in order to avoid pain and other inconvenience at the nails of the fingers of the patient undergoing therapeutic treatment by means of the device. Further temperature sensors can be provided in the interior space 11 of body 10 at suitable locations therein.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0502679-4 | Dec 2005 | SE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/SE2006/001383 | 12/6/2006 | WO | 00 | 6/11/2009 |