Whole Body Hypothermia for the Treatment of Perinatal Asphyxial Encephalopathy
Whole Body Hypothermia for the Treatment of Perinatal Asphyxial Encephalopathy
Hypothesis: Prolonged whole body cooling in term infants with perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy reduces death and severe neurodevelopmental disability.
This study aims to determine whether whole body cooling to 33-34°C is a safe treatment that improves survival, without severe neurological or neurodevelopmental impairments at 18 months, of term infants suffering perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy.
This is a multicentre prospective randomised controlled trial to determine whether a reduction of body temperature by 3-4°C following perinatal asphyxia improves survival without neurodevelopmental disability.
Full term infants will be randomised within 6 hours of birth to either a control group with the rectal temperature kept at 37 ± 0.2°C or to whole body cooling with the rectal temperature kept at 33.5 ± 0.5°C for 72 hours followed by slow rewarming.
The outcome will be assessed at 18 months of age by survival and neurological and neurodevelopmental testing.
Eligibility criteria:
Term infants less than 6 hours after birth with moderate or severe perinatal asphyxia (a combination of clinical and EEG criteria).
Exclusion criteria:
Infants expected to be 6 hours of age at the time of randomisation or infants with major congenital abnormalities.
Intervention:
Intensive care with whole body cooling versus intensive care without whole body cooling (babies are cooled to 33.5°C for 72 hours)
Main Outcomes:
Death and severe neurodevelopmental impairment at 18 months of age
Secondary Outcomes:
Cerebral thrombosis or haemorrhage, persistent hypotension, pulmonary hypertension, abnormal coagulation, arrhythmia and sepsis in the neonatal period. Neurological impairments at 18 months
Number of patients required: 236.
On 30th November 2006, when recruitment closed, 325 babies had been recruited.
Inclusion criteria
The infant will be assessed sequentially by criteria A, B and C listed below:
A. Infants =>36 completed weeks gestation admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with at least one of the following:
Infants that meet criteria A will be assessed for whether they meet the neurological abnormality entry criteria (B) by trained personnel:
B. Moderate to severe encephalopathy, consisting of altered state of consciousness (lethargy, stupor or coma) AND at least one of the following:
Infants that meet criteria A & B will be assessed by amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram (aEEG) (read by trained personnel):
C. At least 30 minutes duration of amplitude integrated EEG recording that shows abnormal background aEEG activity or seizures. There must be one of the following:
Exclusion criteria