Initiation of therapeutic hypothermia in neonates with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy

The authors present a comparative study on initiation of active and passive therapeutic hypothermia in neonates with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy grade 2-3 within a level 2 neonatal unit and a non-cooling centre.

Charu Bhatia
Consultant in Neonatal Medicine, Lister Hospital Stevenage

Antonieo Balraj
Senior Clinical Fellow, Lister Hospital Stevenage

Abinaya Seenivasan
Specialist Registrar, Mersey And West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

charubhatia@nhs.net

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Keywords

therapeutic hypothermia; active cooling; passive cooling; hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy; targeted temperature

Key points

Therapeutic hypothermia is a standard treatment for neonates with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy grade 2-3.
Common practice at level 2 neonatal units in the UK is to start passive cooling until the transport team arrive.
Targeted temperature is achievable within six hours of age in a non-cooling centre prior to the arrival of the transport team.

Also published in Infant:

VOLUME 17/ISSUE 5, SEPTEMBER 2021

Therapeutic hypothermia in neonates: do we cool outside the entry criteria?

This survey reviews current cooling practice of level 3 neonatal units (NNUs) in the UK with regard to treatment of babies who do not fulfil the existing cooling entry criteria. We collected replies from 78% of tertiary NNUs. More than 80% of tertiary units consider cooling or have cooled babies from at least one of the ‘outside the entry criteria’ categories. An analysis of the replies is discussed.