Predicting the need for home gavage or g-tube feeds in asphyxiated neonates treated with therapeutic hypothermia.

Background: Asphyxiated infants treated with therapeutic cooling can have persistent oral feeding difficulty because of involvement of neural pathways in the brainstem, cortex, and basal ganglia. The goal is to predict the composite adverse outcome of death or persistent oral feeding difficulty using precooling/cooling attributes, and the severity and distribution of hypoxic-ischemic lesions, especially brainstem lesions on post-cooling brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: Retrospective review of 86 asphyxiated infants cooled from January 2006 to August 2014.