Systems, catheters, and methods for accessing and treating along the central nervous system are disclosed. An example method may manage inflammation of the patient to treat a condition of the patient by processing values related to one or more physiological parameters of a patent, identifying when an inflammation condition of the patient has reached a treatment condition based on the processed values, and automatically providing an indication that the inflammation condition has reached the treatment condition. An example indication may include actuation of a treatment protocol. The example method may be performed with an inflammation management system.

The present invention provides a cerebrospinal fluid shunt system that monitors the intracranial pressures over a portion of a monitoring cycle to calculate short intervals of drainage for every monitoring cycle necessary to produce the desired pressure correction. The system operates to significantly reduce the time during which draining occurs allowing tissue surrounding the catheter to rebound from the catheter holes returning to its normal position for a sufficient amount of time to recover its normal shape.

This disclosure describes devices and methods used to inject or aspirate fluid into or from various regions of the human body, such as the anterior chamber of the eye. The disclosed devices and methods provide improvements over conventional devices and methods in that an operator can perform a procedure using the disclosed device without an assistant. The disclosed devices and methods allow one-handed injection or aspiration of fluid into or from body tissue, and provide means for controlling the volume of injected or aspirated fluid.

A method and system for treating Alzheimer's disease wherein blood, spinal fluid or brain cavity fluid is circulated into and outside of the body by means of blood pumps or other external circulatory systems. While passing through the pumping system, the amyloid plaques and tau tangles are filtered from the fluids and returned to the body lowering the protein levels, and in the process, reduce symptoms. In one embodiment a patient's blood is filtered using a pump to circulate the blood from the patient to the collection vessel where an electrical current will cause anything that has a positive charge to be attracted to a cathode plate suspended in the collection vessel for later disposal. In an alternate embodiment a patient's brain and/or spinal fluid a pump operates to circulate a flushing fluid. The pump will circulate the solution from the collection vessel to the patient.

A needle is provided that has terminals located at or near its tip. The terminals are connectable to an impedance calculating circuit configured to enable the impedance calculating circuit to apply an alternating current input electrical signal to the terminals. The terminals are further configured to enable the impedance calculating circuit to measure a resultant electrical signal and calculate an impedance of biological tissue surrounding the tip. The needle may further include light transmitting media, that extends along the needle, and that is connectable to a light circuit. The light circuit may include an emitter/detector pair for transmitting light from the emitter, along the media, and emitting the light from the tip. A reflection of the emitted light may be transmitted from the tip to the detector and the light circuit may calculate the light absorption of the tissue.

A device and system for flushing a shunt catheter utilizes the available cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flush a blocked catheter. The CSF is pressurized to a predetermined amount and then allowed to suddenly, rapidly and forcefully purge any occlusions. The rapid release of CSF produces flow jets from the catheter pores into the ventricle. This impulse, or cough, will push and divert choroid plexus and/or other blockages away from the pores. The device and system may then be allowed to refill at a slow rate, thus reducing the possibility of rapid suction of fluid back into the system and the attendant possibility of drawing the choroid plexus back into the pores. The catheter at the proximal end may also include back-up pores that can be opened to restart flow from the ventricle should the primary pores remain blocked after a flushing attempt.

Drug delivery systems and methods are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a drug delivery system can be configured to deliver a drug to a patient in coordination with a physiological parameter of the patient (e.g., the patient's natural cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsation or the patient's heart or respiration rate). In some embodiments, a drug delivery system can be configured to use a combination of infusion and aspiration to control delivery of a drug to a patient. Catheters, controllers, and other components for use in the above systems are also disclosed, as are various methods of using such systems.

The invention provides a catheter comprising an elongate body having an exterior surface with a substantially planar portion, a perforation that extends through the planar exterior surface to an internal lumen, providing fluid communication between the lumen and said surface, and a movable covering to occlude the perforation when the catheter body is moved relative to brain tissue during insertion and withdrawal from said tissue. The invention extends to a method of removing excess cerebrospinal fluid from a patient through use of the catheter. The coverings fold according to the direction of movement to cover an adjacent trailing perforation against ingress of tissue fragments.

A device for topical cooling of the nervous system via cooling of cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, using a solid thermally conductive material. The solid thermally conductive material is coupled to a heat exchange apparatus. The thermally conductive material may be coupled to any catheter that is used in existing clinical standard of care for acute neuronal injuries, such as catheters used to monitor and relieve intracranial pressure. The thermally conductive material is a biocompatible and solid material, for instance, metals such as steel, tungsten and titanium, and non-metallic materials such as thermal diamond paste.

Medical devices for inducing hypothermia are disclosed. Induced hypothermia is a treatment used to reduce secondary complications caused by reduced oxygen and blood flow during traumatic injuries and surgeries. However, induced hypothermia also has negative side effects such as shivering and lowered immune system. These devices incorporate Highly-Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) for solid conduction to lower the temperature at targeted locations on and inside the body. The benefits of incorporating HOPG include: highly efficient heat conduction, flexibility in design and manufacture, reduction of dependence on inefficient and unstable fluid-filled implants and catheters, and anti-thrombotic effects.