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There is extensive experimental evidence to support the investigation of treatment with mild hypothermia after birth asphyxia. However, clinical studies have been delayed by the difficulty in predicting long-term outcome very soon after birth and by concern about adverse effects of hypothermia.

The objectives of this study were to determine whether it is feasible to select infants with a bad neurological prognosis and to begin hypothermic therapy within 6 hours of birth, and to observe the effect of this therapy on relevant physiologic variables.

Sixteen newborn infants with clinical features of birth asphyxia (median cord blood pH: 6.74; range: 6.58–7.08) were assessed by amplitude integrated electroencephalography (aEEG), and mild whole body hypothermia was instituted within 6 hours of birth in the 10 infants with an aEEG …