Cooling Technique May Have Helped Couple's Newborn
Oct. 14, 2005 — -- Moments after his wife delivered their first child, Antoine Poussier looked down at his newborn son and was shocked.
"He was so white," Poussier said. "He had no muscle tone and when I tried to grab his little hand, he did nothing."
During delivery, Antoine and Alexa Poussier's son had been deprived of oxygen for almost seven minutes – a period long enough to cause devastating brain damage or even death in a newborn. After explaining the baby's condition to Antoine, the doctor suggested he enroll his son in an experimental study.
"'Study' isn't the word I wanted to hear from him," said Antoine, of Rochester Hills, Mich. "I wanted to hear about treatment."
Oxygen deprivation during labor or delivery occurs in two out of every 1,000 births. Until recently, no treatment has been helpful. But new research may provide some hope to parents in this frightening situation.
In a study published in the Oct. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers with the Neonatal Research Network wrote that lowering the body temperature of oxygen-deprived babies for a three-day period appeared to reduce the chance of long-term brain damage.
More than 200 infants who had showed signs of severe brain damage after being deprived of oxygen during delivery were enrolled in the study, which was led by Dr. Seetha Shankaran of Wayne State University. Doctors at 16 hospitals across the country participated in the work.
To study the effects of cooling, half of the babies were placed on special cooling blankets and were carefully monitored as their body temperature was dropped to 92 degrees. These babies were kept cool for three days before they were slowly re-warmed. The other babies received standard supportive care.
For 22 months, the babies were periodically observed for any signs of developmental delay, cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing problems or seizures. Of the babies who were cooled, the risk of moderate to severe disabilities or death was decreased by 33 percent. Sixty-four of the 103 babies who were not cooled died or had moderate to severe injuries, versus 45 of the 102 babies who did receive the experimental treatment.
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