Temperature-Monitoring Device Could Help Premature Babies

$750,000 in grants was recently given to the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) to help fund studies analyzing the further development of a new device that aims to help premature babies.

The device is meant to measure the temperature of a newborn's brain immediately after birth.

National Institutes of Health Help Out

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently granted the hospital the money to help with the studies.

According to the NIH research, when the brain of newborns is cooled, it helps reduce the possibility that the infant will develop cerebral palsy or have other neurological damage.

New Device Introduced

Although research has shown the positive effects that cooling the brain can have on newborns, doctors haven't determined a specific way to measure the brain's temperature.

The grant, given by the NIH, will enable researchers to adapt a non-invasive radiometric-sensing device.

This device could help give doctors the temperatures of brain tissue that exists beneath the skull.

“Precise brain temperature measurements are essential to maximize the benefit of therapeutic hypothermia,” explains Thomas Bass, M.D.

Measuring Brain Temperature

According to researchers, 1,000 newborns are born at a temperature that increases the risk of cerebral palsy from brain damage due to oxygen deprivation.

Approximately half of these infants are born with handicaps such as cerebral palsy.

“Cooling the brain decreases its need for oxygen and can slow or stop continuing damage,” says Bass.

(Source: Eureka Alert)

Do you have a child that was born with CP? If so, contact us to speak with an experienced cerebral palsy attorney.