Lowering body temperatures may prevent newborn brain damage

A new study said infants whose brains are deprived of oxygen at birth have a better chance of survival without brain damage if their body temperatures are chilled by six degrees Fahrenheit for three days.

The study's authors hope the research can be used to prevent deaths, as well as to reduce the number of birth injuries suffered. Every year, 1,700 full-term infants born in the United States have blood or oxygen temporarily cut off from their brains, causing death in up to 20 percent of these babies and disabilities in another 25 percent.

Seetha Shankaran, one of the study's researchers, said the cooling treatment was the first to reduce brain injuries among such babies. Duane Alexander, the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said the study's findings are "extremely promising," but the technique is not yet ready to be adopted.

Benefits must be confirmed, including further tests that assess surviving children when they enter school. Should study results confirm the therapy’s benefits, Shankaran said most hospitals would also need to be properly set up to allow the continuous monitoring required.

It is still premature to consider the use of brain cooling, but results have been encouraging. Sixteen medical centers used special blankets infused with cold water to gradually reduce oxygen deprived newborns’ body temperatures and found that 44 percent of 102 babies whose bodies were chilled died or showed some type of disability two years after birth compared to 62 percent of 106 babies who received standard care.

In addition, the rate of disabling cerebral palsy was 63 percent lower when the cooling blanket was used, rate of blindness was 50 percent lower and the death rate was 32 percent lower. Experts have noted most hospitals are unable to identify infants that would benefit from the treatment, and improper use of the technique could cause more harm instead.