A specially-engineered ice slurry could be used to cool the brain and major organs, delaying cell death and giving doctors and paramedics more time to revive heart attack and accident victims.

The technique, developed at the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, uses a fluid mixture of ice particles suspended in a saline solution. This is injected into the patient to rapidly cool the blood of targeted organs.

With ice slurry, the brain can be cooled by two to five degrees C and stay cool for around an hour, giving doctors time to restore normal blood flow and reduce brain damage.

An ice slurry, delivered through an endotracheal tube, would fill the lungs – cooling the lungs and the heart. The area surrounding each carotid artery also could be filled with the slurry through a hypodermic syringe. The blood passing through these “heat exchangers” would cool rapidly, and chest compressions would be used, in the case of cardiac arrest, to induce blood flow to the brain.

Via The Engineer. More pictures.