The study was stopped early due to changes in the UC Davis guidelines on who qualified for therapeutic hypothermia and significant difficulty in recruitment of patients following the COVID19 pandemic.

The goal is to see whether topiramate (an anti-epileptic agent) improves the outcome of babies with neonatal hypoxic encephalopathy who are receiving whole body cooling.

Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a devastating and unexpected disease in newborns that affects 1.5-2.6 per 1000 live births. Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy has a mortality rate of up to 30% and survivors are at significant risk for adverse long-term outcomes, including seizures, cerebral palsy, and developmental delay. The investigators propose a randomized controlled study comparing therapeutic hypothermia alone, or therapeutic hypothermia combined with topiramate. The investigators hypothesize that adjuvant therapy with topiramate will reduce short term severity of HIE including seizures (the primary outcome), a composite HIE severity score, and reduce the time of normalization of the amplitude integrated EEG (aEEG). The investigators further hypothesize, that it will improve longer term outcomes such as developmental outcome. The primary hypothesis is that seizures before hospital discharge (or before 4 weeks post-natal age (which ever is earlier)) will be significantly reduced in the topiramate group compared to the control group

Inclusion Criteria:

In order to be eligible for cooling the baby must meet all three of the following sets of criteria

1. Be near term (typically ≥34wks gestation) and be aged < 6h old
2. Have signs of early perinatal depression (EITHER 10 minute Apgar score < 5, OR pH < 7.00 within 60mins of age, OR Base Excess < -12 within 60mins of age, OR need respiratory support at 10min of age due to respiratory depression)
3. Have signs of moderate or severe encephalopathy based on either clinical examination or on amplitude integrated aEEG assessment

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Known congenital myopathy
2. Known congenital neuropathy

Data was collected until discharge, typically less than one month

Charts were reviewed to collect adverse event data.

Study was stopped short of intended recruitment due to difficulty with recruitment during COVID pandemic and changes to the therapeutic hypothermia protocol at our institution.