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Therapeutic Whole-Body Hypothermia Program
Whole-body cooling is available at Children’s National Medical Center for infants with a serious illness (hypoxia ischemic insult) that requires cerebral protection. Neuroprotective strategies are coming to the forefront of intensive care medicine, where the focus is on detecting brain injury (neuromonitoring) and offering therapies (neuroprotection). Children’s offers these new and innovative technologies to help patients in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU).
Children’s whole-body cooling places newborns on a water-filled cooling mattress to reduce body temperature to 92F for 3 days (72 hours). This time period is long enough to interrupt brain injury. After the three days, the baby recovers to its normal body temperature in the NICU. Children’s cooling program follows the National Institute of Health’s Neonatal Network protocol, which demonstrates a reduction in death or serious disability from about two-thirds to less than one-half of infants who develop serious neonatal encephalopathy within 6 hours of birth.
Children’s Neonatal Neuroprotection Program is a collaboration between the divisions of Neonatology, Neurology, and Radiology with input from early child development. - Departments & Programs - Children's National Medical Center
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