Xenon as a neuroprotective treatment in neonatal encephalopathy

Therapeutic hypothermia has been adopted as a neuroprotective treatment for newborn infants with signs of moderate or severe hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage. This article discusses one of the new potential add-on treatments to cooling, the anaesthetic gas xenon. Its mechanism of action, the delivery method and the on-going randomised trials investigating the neuro-protective properties are reviewed.