Patent ID: 9027213
Filing Date: 2015-05-12
Classification: A01N

Abstract:
1. A method for preserving a body or an organ thereof, the method comprising: providing a preservation system, the preservation system comprising: a pressure chamber having at least one fluid inlet and a vascular inlet line, the vascular inlet line comprising a fluid conduit disposed in an internal volume of the pressure chamber and having a needle or a cannula constructed for insertion into a portion of the vascular system of the body or the organ, the pressure chamber being sized and shaped so as to allow the body or the organ to be enclosed in the internal volume; a flow module configured to supply at least liquid carbon dioxide to the pressure chamber through the at least one fluid inlet and to the vascular system through the vascular inlet line; a temperature module configured to control the temperature of the pressure chamber; and a system controller configured to control the flow module to fill the pressure chamber and the vascular system with liquid carbon dioxide and to control the temperature module to heat the liquid carbon dioxide in the chamber and the vascular system above the carbon dioxide critical point temperature and pressure, the pressure chamber being constructed to withstand a temperature and a pressure of at least said carbon dioxide critical point temperature and pressure; perfusing the body or the organ with fixative by way of the vascular inlet line connected to the vascular system of the body or organ; at a same time as the perfusing with fixative, exposing external surfaces of the body or organ to fixative supplied via said at least one fluid inlet while the body or organ is in the pressure chamber; after the perfusing with fixative, perfusing the body or the organ with liquid carbon dioxide by way of the vascular inlet line connected to the vascular system of the body or organ while the body or the organ is in the pressure chamber; exposing external surfaces of the body or the organ to liquid carbon dioxide supplied via said at least one fluid inlet while the body or the organ is in the pressure chamber; heating the body or the organ in the sealed pressure chamber until the temperature and pressure in said pressure chamber meet or exceed the critical point for carbon dioxide; and after the heating, exhausting carbon dioxide from the pressure chamber and the body or the organ therein.