You have sanitas hospital incorporates the hypothermia to treat newborn infants affected by lack of oxygen.

-The reduction of body temperature decreases the nerve damage and improves survival

-available in very few neonatal units, should be applied in the first six hours of life

-lack of oxygen at birth remains one of the leading causes of death and disability in childhood

Madrid, February 2013- the Hospital Sanitas La Moraleja has incorporated the neonatal hypothermia, only effective treatment currently to reduce neurological damage and improve survival of the newborns affected by a lack of oxygen.

Hypothermia consists of neonatal body temperature induced reduction to 33 or 34 degrees for 48 to 72 hours. With cooling the brain metabolism, energy consumption is reduced and are braked the neurological damage caused by a lack of oxygen ”, explains Dr. José Jiménez, Chief of the service of Pediatrics of the Hospital Sanitas La Moraleja. For its implementation, the Hospital Sanitas La Moraleja has acquired a team of full body cooling with electric blanket.

Hypothermia must be performed within the first six hours of life to make it effective, so incorporate this technique allows us to act with the urgency required in these cases avoiding the baby has to be moved to another centre ”, adds Dr. Jiménez.

One of the main causes of childhood neurological deficit

The lack of oxygen at birth remains one of the leading causes of death and disability in childhood. This failure affects all organs and systems in varying degrees but is in the nervous system which produces more relevant in terms of sequels and mortality index damage.

Complications depend on while the baby has seen private of oxygen and the speed with which they act. between the symptoms that reveal that there has been an episode of these features we can see difficulties breathing. slowness of the heart rate; changes in the ability to awaken and maintain wakefulness; lack of response to stimuli; occurrence of seizures or muscle flaccidity ”, says Dr. Jimenez.

The most characteristic clinical manifestation includes under the term hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy affecting approximately one of every 1,000 newborn babies to term. In the case of moderate encephalopathy, the risk of death is 10% and 30% of infants who survive suffer permanent neurological deficits. In the event of severe encephalopathy mortality rate increases to 60% and almost all the survivors suffer serious sequelae. Among other consequences, between 6% and 23% of the cases of cerebral palsy in newborns are attributable to hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.

To apply hypothermia induced in these patients has been reduced to 40% mortality and neurological injuries to 19%. Results are promising because until a few years ago there was no specific therapy that would improve the prognosis in these cases ”, says Dr. Jiménez.

Recent application in our country, the therapy is available even in very few neonatal units. The Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital becomes one of the first private hospitals in having a team of neonatal hypothermia.