Adjustable Head Cooling Cap With Gap-Filling Thermal Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current head coolers are not easily adaptable to the varying size and shape of patients' heads and necks, leading to reduced cooling efficiency and failure to effectively cool the scalp and eyebrows, resulting in hair loss during cytostatic treatments.
Innovation Solution
A head cooler with a thermal exchange cap that is adjustable and adaptable, featuring partitioned sections with flow passages and an outer insulating cover, along with an inner flexible bag for improved contact and fluid distribution, and an optional eyebrow cooler for comprehensive cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the head cooler is made large or wide to cover the entire scalp, then the coverage area is improved, but a gap is formed between the heat exchange surface and the head, reducing cooling efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The head cooler incorporates an inflatable bag that can be dynamically adjusted in volume to match the patient's head size and shape. This dynamic adjustment ensures continuous contact between the heat exchange surface and the scalp, eliminating gaps while maintaining full coverage area.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the filling material from deflated to inflated, altering the volume and shape parameters of the head cooler to adapt to different patient anatomies. This parameter change enables the device to maintain both large coverage area and reliable thermal contact.
2Reliability
If the head cooler is made small or narrow to fit the head, then contact with the scalp is improved, but the coverage area is reduced, compromising cooling efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The inflatable bag structure allows the head cooler to dynamically expand and conform to the patient's head contours. This dynamic expansion ensures that the device maintains intimate thermal contact with the scalp while simultaneously achieving complete coverage of the required area.
3Ease of manufacture
If the head cooler uses a fixed structure, then manufacturing is simplified, but adaptability to different patient head sizes and shapes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The head cooler employs a flexible inflatable bag structure that can be manufactured in a standardized form but adapts to various anatomies when inflated. This flexible shell approach maintains manufacturing simplicity while achieving high adaptability to different patient head sizes and shapes.
Solution Approach 2:
The fixed structure is transformed into a dynamic inflatable structure that can change its volume and shape. This dynamic capability allows a single standardized component to adapt to multiple patient anatomies, maintaining ease of manufacture while improving versatility.
4Device complexity
If the head cooler does not include eyebrow cooling, then the device complexity is reduced, but hair loss protection is compromised in the eyebrow region
Solution Approach 1:
The head cooler is segmented into distinct functional zones, including a dedicated eyebrow cooling section with separate flow passages. This segmentation allows the eyebrow region to receive targeted cooling protection while maintaining overall device functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The eyebrow region is provided with specialized cooling flow passages and thermal exchange surfaces tailored to the specific anatomical and thermal requirements of that area. This local quality enhancement ensures reliable hair loss protection in the eyebrow region without unnecessarily complicating the entire device.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures effective cooling of the scalp and eyebrows, minimizing hair loss by maintaining consistent contact with the head and neck, enhancing cooling efficiency and adaptability to individual anatomies.
Implementation Method 1
at least one flow passage system for a cooling fluid provided in the thermal exchange cap forming an inside heat exchange surface to be applied against the head for cooling of the head
Implementation Method 2
means for filling up, by the supply of a fluid heat conducting material, a gap between the inside surface of the thermal exchange cap and the head
Implementation Method 3
an outer insulating cover made of a heat insulating material, e.g. also elastic, which encloses the thermal exchange cap
Data Source
AI summary
A head cooler (10) comprises a thermal exchange cap (11) and an outer insulating cover (12) to be arranged on a patient s head. The cap (11) has a channel system (31, 32) for a cooling fluid forming an inside heat exchange surface to be applied on said head for cooling the head. The thermal exchange cap (11, 60) is adjustable and/or adaptable to compensate for a discrepancy in shape and size between the inside surface of the head cooler (10) and the head. The head cooler (10) may further comprisean eyebrow cooler (140) for cooling the area of the eyebrows. The head cooler (140) is used in medicine. A method for preventing hair loss of a patient is provided by arranging the head cooler (10) on the head of said patient.