Brain Injury

Body cooling treatment helps oxygen-starved newborns

Babies with a life-threatening condition whose bodies are cooled shortly after birth as a treatment continue to benefit from the therapy years later, a new study suggests.

In the study of babies born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a condition in which the brain does not receive enough oxygen, those who received the body-cooling treatment were more likely to survive to ages 6 and 7 than those who did not receive the treatment, the study found.In addition, the treatment did not appear to increase the risk of harms later in life — babies who received body cooling were no more likely to have physical disabilities or   low IQ scores   in early childhood, the researchers said.The study supports the findings of earlier research that the cooling treatment decreased the risk of death in infants with HIE. However, it is the first study to show these benefits persist in school-age children, the researchers said."Before the advent of this cooling treatment in 2005, doctors couldn't tre...

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