BeneChill, a privately-held medical device company, was founded in 2004 with the mission to develop novel cooling technology that will improve patient outcomes after ischemic events such as cardiac arrest, stroke and other traumatic brain injury.  Therapeutic hypothermia currently is recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) and European Resuscitation Council (ERC) for patients successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest.  Cooling typically begins after the patient is admitted to the hospital.  However, many medical professionals believe that cooling could be more effective if started earlier, ideally at the time of arrest, but current hypothermia methods are not practical in this setting.

BeneChill is the first company to successfully complete an intra-arrest randomized cooling trial.  The company conducted the first randomized intra-arrest cooling study in Europe performed using a novel intra-nasal cooling method and showed faster and earlier cooling in treated patients and significantly higher neurologically intact survival-to-discharge rate in many patients.

The company launched its The Pre-Resuscitation Intra-Nasal Cooling Effectiveness (PRINCE) study in 2008 in Europe. PRINCE involved 200 patients and was conducted by 15 Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and Sweden.  The investigators were invited to present the results during the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium “Best of the Best” presentations in Orlando, FL in November 2009.

The PRINCE study tested rapid initiation of brain (as measured by the tympanic temperature) cooling at the site of arrest even before normal circulation was reestablished using the RhinoChill™ Intra-Nasal Cooling System, BeneChill’s lead product.