Friday, May 13, 2005

The Cool-Cap

Filed under: Pediatrics

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a simple new device is thought to protect the neonatal brain from hypoxic damage:

When baby James Pyrih came to the intensive-care nursery Tuesday night with possible brain damage, doctors put a tiny plastic cap filled with cold water on his head.

The baby had suffered from lack of oxygen during birth. Doctors at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital hoped that by lowering his brain temperature a few degrees with the "Cool-Cap," they could reduce the chances that he would become physically or mentally disabled.

Right now, there is little doctors can do to help babies who suffer brain trauma from loss of oxygen during delivery. Cooling is thought to help prevent the damage that occurs when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die. Researchers believe there is a small window of opportunity after birth to prevent a lifetime of disability.

"If you slow down metabolism and decrease the brain's energy needs, the brain can funnel all its efforts toward healing and repair," said Susan Adeniyi-Jones, a Jefferson neonatologist who has been testing the experimental cap.

The company that makes the Cool-Cap, Olympic Medical Corp., Seattle, has applied to the federal Food and Drug Administration for approval to market the device. The company is scheduled to make its case to an agency panel on June 17, according to Ted Weiler, vice president for research and development...

A study that tracked the progress of 218 full-term babies who lost oxygen during birth found that 66 percent of those treated conventionally died or had neurological problems at 18 months of age, compared with 55 percent of those who got the cooling cap. The study, done at Jefferson and 24 other medical centers, was published in January in the British medical journal the Lancet. The benefit was even greater when researchers looked at those babies with less severe brain injury to start...

Cooling is thought to interfere with the biochemical process that is launched when brain cells are deprived of oxygen.

Olympic Medical Corp's website (we were unable to locate any info about the device on the company's website)...

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