| abstract |
An apparatus for performing hypothermia of the body of a patient, or of a selected organ, while delivering a medicament to a selected blood vessel. A flexible coaxial catheter is inserted through the vascular system of a patient to place the distal tip of the catheter in a selected artery. A chilled fluid is pumped through an inner supply conduit of the catheter to cool a flexible heat transfer element in the distal tip of the catheter. The heat transfer element cools the blood flowing through the artery distal to the tip of the catheter. The medicament, such as a vaso-dilator, is delivered either separately or mixed with the chilled fluid, through a very small exit port in or near the heat transfer element. |