Investigational medical technology
ChillCath is a novel catheter-based technology designed to produce reversible, regionally selective nerve blockade through controlled cooling — without systemic medication, tissue destruction, or implanted stimulators.
01 — Introduction
ChillCath is a nerve cooling system intended to enable regional hypothermic anesthesia and analgesia.
The system delivers controlled, localized cooling along a targeted peripheral nerve or nerve plexus, producing a reversible conduction blockade. Unlike medication-based nerve blocks, cooling does not rely on a pharmacologic agent; unlike cryoablation, the effect is reversible; unlike implanted neurostimulators, it does not require a surgical implant.
The technology is deployed using ultrasound-guided percutaneous catheter placement — a workflow already familiar to clinicians performing regional anesthesia today.
02 — Problem
Current standard therapies for acute and chronic pain fall into three categories: systemic or local medications, mechanical destruction of neuronal tissue, and neuromodulation or stimulation. Each category carries its own limitations.
Medication-based therapies
Limited by tachyphylaxis, allergic reactions, genetic variability, drug intolerances, adverse reactions, systemic and local toxicity, the need for repeated dosing due to medication half-lives, addiction, diversion for inappropriate use, and other side effects.
Mechanical destruction
Often irreversible, and may cause collateral tissue damage and secondary pain syndromes.
Implanted neurostimulation
Not effective in all patients, invasive, and requires costly surgical procedures and hardware.
ChillCath is designed to address these limitations by offering a regionally selective, reversible approach to targeting a specific nerve or nerve plexus — without a drug, without a destructive lesion, and without an implant.
03 — Background
As anyone who has made a snowball with bare hands knows, cold induces numbness. That same insight formed the basis for one of the earliest recorded inductions of anesthesia for a surgical procedure.
Across the history of medicine, the popularity of "refrigeration" — or cryoanesthesia — has waxed and waned. The historical challenge has been selectivity: the technique was largely non-specific and was generally applied only to a limb about to be amputated.
Separately, the use of catheters to deliver medications has a long and well-documented medical history. Common to many anesthetic techniques, an indwelling catheter is placed percutaneously alongside a selected nerve axon using a needle under ultrasound guidance.
ChillCath combines these two established foundations. It is deployed along the nerve axon using the same well-established placement procedure that clinicians already use for continuous regional blocks — but delivers controlled cooling rather than a pharmacologic agent.
04 — Status
ChillCath is an investigational technology under active development by Selway Solutions, LLC. It is not currently cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is not available for commercial sale or clinical use outside of authorized research protocols.
Intellectual property covering the ChillCath system is wholly owned by Selway Solutions, LLC and is the subject of a pending patent application.
Additional information — including technical detail, preclinical work, and partnership opportunities — is available on request to qualified parties.
05 — Contact
For press, regulatory, clinical-partnership, or investor inquiries, please reach out directly. Replies are reviewed by the ChillCath team at Selway Solutions, LLC.
This website provides general information about the ChillCath technology. It does not constitute medical advice, a solicitation of investment, or an offer of any product or service.