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Sparks aim is to develop more a more effective treatment to help more than 1 in every 6 babies suffering brain damage at birth. Cooling newborn babies down from 37 to 34ºC for 3 days if they have suffered lack of oxygen around the time of birth has recently been shown to help them survive with reduced disability. However not all infants were helped by this treatment therefore more effective treatment is needed. This project will examine whether the combination of cooling and ventilation with the gas xenon is more effective in preventing brain injury than either xenon or hypothermia alone.
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• 1000 UK babies a year die or suffer brain damage from oxygen deprivation at birth. • A lack of oxygen at birth can stem from a ruptured uterus, a placenta that peels off prematurely or an umbilical chord that collapses or becomes pressed against the baby’s head. • Cooling newborn babies down from 37 to 34ºC for 3 days if they have suffered lack of oxygen around the time of birth has been found to be an effective method of combating the devastating effects of brain damage in both premature and full term babies, helping them survive with reduced disability. • Initial research funded by SPARKS led to the development of the “cooling cap”, a simple polythene cap (filled with circulating cold water) placed on the baby’s head has been found to save 1 in 6 babies from death or lifelong disability. • Doctors now aim to understanding more fully how and why cooling the brain works; how brain damage occurs in very premature babies and whether cooling may help them too; and whether new treatments can be developed which use the body’s own repair mechanisms to heal the damaged brain. Doctors are now regularly using brain and body cooling to treat babies at risk of brain damage Sparks aim is to develop more a more effective treatment to help more than 1 in every 6 babies suffering brain damage at birth How are we doing this? We are funding one of the original research teams involved in the “cooling cap research” as they investigate: • whether treatment with Xenon gas helps prevent brain damage in babies? • if it is more effective in combination with cooling or on it’s own? • what happens if treatment with Xenon is delayed (eg. if transferring child to a treatment centre) • Equipment £56k is going on the development of 2 Xenon delivery machines – these would be disposable machines that can be attached to a ventilator that provides a continuous supply of oxygen. Minute amounts of Xenon would be used (~345 ml of Xenon gas per hour ($10 per litre)) . The delivery machine will be developed so that it can be immediately removed. Importantly, Xenon gas can be expelled from the body in a few breaths. Researchers John Dingley – Cardio thoracic anaesthetist - based in Swansea Medical School. Professor Marianne Thoresen, Professor of Neonatal Science and her team specialise in “Neuroprotection of newborn babies brains”