[Moderate cerebral hypothermia in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy: Experience after one year].

Introduction: Moderate cerebral hypothermia has been shown to be an effective intervention in decreasing mortality and major disabilities in infants with moderate-severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE).

Objectives: To describe our experience within the first year of implementation, and to evaluate the feasibility and safety of this intervention.

Methods: Retrospective study of 20 patients with moderate-severe HIE treated with whole body hypothermia in the Agrupación Sanitaria Hospital Sant Joan de Déu-Hospital Clínic, between January 2009 and June 2010.

Results: During this period, 50 patients with perinatal HIE, 26 of them moderate- severe, were admitted to our units. Twenty patients received hypothermia (13 with severe and 7 with moderate HIE). All of them had at least one risk factor for perinatal hypoxia-ischaemia, and clinical signs of HIE. Fifteen had clinical and/or EEG seizures. Core temperature was maintained at 33.5 ± 0.5°C in 76.5% of determinations for infants cooled with a manual control device, and in 93.6% for those cooled with a servo-controlled device (P<.0001). Re-warming took a median time of 10.5 hours. No potentially severe complications related to hypothermia were observed. Seven patients (35%) died, all of them with severe HIE.

Conclusions: There were no difficulties in any of the steps of this intervention, and no potentially severe complications related to it were recorded. Both manual and servo-control methods are equally effective on maintaining the target temperature, although temperature shows less variability using the servo-controlled equipment.