Cold treatment fails to protect preterm infants from disability or death caused by oxygen loss, suggests study
Lowering the body temperature of preterm infants (born at 33 to 35 weeks of pregnancy) with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)-a type of brain damage caused by oxygen loss-offers no benefits over standard care, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Previous studies of near-term and term infants (born after 36 weeks) with HIE found that this cooling treatment, which lowers body temperature to about 92 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly reduced the risk of death or disability by age 18 months (corrected for prematurity). However, the current findings show that such benefits are not observed for preterm infants with HIE.
The authors noted that use of the cooling treatment in preterm infants has increased, despite little research on its effectiveness in this age group.
The study was conducted by Roger G. Faix, M.D., of the University of Utah, and colleagues at 19 newborn research centers. It appears in JAMA Pediatrics. Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
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