Grant awarded for follow up study of "brain cooled" babies

Caroline Edmonds, with Dr Brigitte Vollmer from the University of Southampton, was recently awarded a grant from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust. The grant will fund a study entitled, "School readiness in children who underwent hypothermia treatment for neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy".

As babies, these children had neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), which means that they were starved of oxygen around the time of their birth. The treatment for HIE is therapeutic hypothermia, otherwise known as "brain cooling", which is administered in the neonatal period. “Brain cooling” is a fairly recent neuroprotective intervention, which has now become standard care in the majority of neonatal centres, and has been shown to reduce severe disability and mortality at toddler age. However, there is very little long term outcome data beyond toddler age, and the available data are partly inconclusive.

Our study will assess brain cooled children, and an age- and sex-matched control group, at the age of 5. The project will examine whether brain cooled children differ from typically developing children on measures of general health, and on cognitive and behavioural measures that are important for school readiness and school success.

The study aims to address some important gaps in the existing research on long term effects of neonatal brain cooling. We will, in line with other studies, assess children's general abilities, but we will also assess more specific aspects of cognition, behaviour, and neuromotor function, which are highly relevant for school readiness and school success, as well as for everyday functioning and peer relationships. As well as providing important information on long term outcomes that are important for everyday functioning and school success, it will raise awareness of behavioural and educational difficulties that a large proportion of these children are likely to encounter.