Neonatal Induced Hypothermia

Neonatal induced hypothermia is a new treatment option for term and near-term infants who have experienced a significant neurologic insult in the perinatal period. Induced hypothermia lowers the core temperature of the brain by 2°C to 5°C. This treatment, when initiated within 6 hours after birth and maintained for 72 hours, lowers the metabolic demands of the brain and therefore reduces the damage from hypoxemia-ischemia and subsequent reperfusion injury. This therapy has been shown in recent studies to reduce the incidence of death and disability in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.