Many cases of cerebral palsy (CP) are caused by complications that occur around the time of delivery (these are known as birth injuries). Based on this, Sandra Julsen Hollung and colleagues hypothesized that improvements in obstetrical and neonatal care could decrease the rate of cerebral palsy. Studying the Impact of Healthcare Standards on Cerebral Palsy…
What Is Therapeutic Hypothermia? Therapeutic hypothermia has proven effectiveness in minimizing permanent brain damage after hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or HIE. HIE is a type of brain injury caused by a lack of oxygenated blood flow. In infants, it can occur due to complications in late pregnancy, birth, or the neonatal period. What Do We Already Know…
Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a type of birth injury that occurs when an baby’s brain is deprived of oxygenated blood at or around the time of birth. HIE is a major cause of neurological damage in term and near-term infants, and accounts for about 25% of deaths during the neonatal period. Even short durations of…
Thus far, the most effective medical intervention for infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is hypothermia therapy, or cooling treatment. When administered very shortly after birth or the oxygen-depriving incident, this therapy can reverse brain damage and minimize (or in some cases prevent) permanent harm. However, hypothermia therapy is not always effective, and additional solutions for…
Currently, the only available treatment for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), besides supportive care and therapy to mitigate the symptoms, is hypothermia therapy. This involves cooling a baby down to a below-normal temperature in order to allow the brain to recover from a hypoxic-ischemic injury and limit the spread of damage. Hypothermia therapy is known to reduce…
Babies that have sustained oxygen-depriving injuries (perinatal asphyxia) during the birthing process can benefit greatly from prompt administration of hypothermia therapy. Cooling an injured newborn to a below-normal temperature can give brain cells a chance to repair themselves, which stops the damage from spreading and becoming permanent. Hypothermia therapy can prevent or decrease the severity…
Brain cooling is a procedure that treats hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which is a neonatal brain injury often caused by medical mistakes. Medical mistakes are a patient safety problem – they often can be prevented, but when proper care is not provided, patients are harmed. It is the duty of medical practitioners to prevent errors from occurring – if…
What Does it Mean When a Baby Is Taken to the NICU For Brain Cooling? We have found that some of our clients come to us and say that their child was taken to the NICU for brain cooling, but they weren’t given clear information about why their child was receiving the therapy, or even…
Hypothermia Cooling Therapy: Looking Back at the Standards of Care and Forwards to the Future While hypothermia cooling therapy (also know as therapeutic hypothermia or hypothermia treatment) is now the standard of care for treating newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), this was not always the case. The practices of head cooling, whole-body cooling or…
A new research paper released in Pediatrics examines the impact of administering high-dose erythropoietin (EPO) in conjunction with hypothermia therapy (brain cooling) for babies with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). The paper describes the result of Phase II clinical trials. Background: Hypothermia Therapy as the Standard of Care for Treating HIE The standard of care for babies…
