HEN Simulation of a Controlled Fluid Flow-Based Neural Cooling Probe Used for the Treatment of Focal and Spontaneous Epilepsy

Abstract Brain disorders such as epilepsy is a condition that affects an estimated 2.7 million Americans, 50,000,000 worldwide,approximately 200,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed each year. Of the major chronic medical conditions, epilepsy is amongthe least understood. Scientists are conducting research to determine appropriate treatments, such as the use of drugs, vagus n ervestimulation, brain stimulation, and Peltier chip-based focal cooling. However, brain stimulation and Peltier chip-based stimula tionprocesses cannot effectively stop seizures. This paper presents simulation of a novel heat enchanger network(HEN) techniquedesigned to stop seizures by using a neural cooling probe to stop focal and spontaneous seizures by cooling the brain. The desi gnedprobe was composed of a U-shaped tube through which cold fluid flowed in order to reduce the temperature of the brain. Thesimulation results demonstrated that the neural probe could cool a 7 mm 2 area of the brain when the fluid was flowing atb a velocityof 0.55 m/s. It also showed that the neural cooling probe required 23 % less energy to produce cooling when compared to the Peltierchip-based cooling system.