Acute Complications in neonates with birth asphyxia undergoing therapeutic hypothermia”-A Cross sectional observational study in a tertiary teaching hospital in kolar.

Abstract

encephalopathy (HIE) account for a quarter of these deaths and an unknown number of survivors with lifelong disability.The aim of the study is to determine the acute complications occurring in neonates with birth asphyxia undergoing therapeutic hypothermia in a tertiary care hospital in Kolar.A cross sectional observational study was done from May 2021 to June 2022 and neonates with birth asphyxia were included in the study. Acute complications occurring in these neonates were analyzed based on the clinical and laboratory parameters. p value (Probability that the result is true) of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant after assuming all the rules of statistical tests. Out of 23 birth asphyxia neonates included in the study, the mean age of the neonates was 76.52+87.7 minutes. 14(60.9%) were males and 9(39.1%) were females with 3(13%) being <2.5kg and 20 >2.5kg. Thompson score used in this study to assess the neurological status ranged between 8 and 13 with mean value of 10.26+1.25. Among the clinical parameters, sinus bradycardia and cardiac arrhythmia(p<0.05) had statistically significant association with outcome of neonates who underwent therapeutic cooling. Thrombocytopenia (p<0.05) and Culture proven sepsis(p<0.05) were the laboratory parameters which had statistically significant association with outcome. This study reveals that Therapeutic hypothermia does not increase mortality in birth asphyxia infants. However, complications like sinus bradycardia, cardiac arrhythmia, thrombocytopenia requiring platelet transfusion and culture sepsis were commonly observed in neonates who received therapeutic cooling.