LETTER

Cold comfort for babies

A J Lyon, B Stenson

Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; andrew.lyon@luht.scot.nhs.uk

Keywords: hypothermia; mortality

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

CESDI Project 27/28 investigated the standards of care provided to infants who died after birth at 27–28 weeks gestation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland during 1998–1999, comparing them with controls who survived.¹ Temperature on admission to the neonatal unit was below the British Association of Perinatal Medicine/Royal College of Physicians (BAPM/RCP) standard of 36°C² in 73% of babies who died and 59% of controls. The CESDI report confirms the findings of the EPICure study,³ which showed that low admission temperature was an independent risk factor for neonatal death after adjustment for other known risks. Alarmingly, the CESDI report concludes that, as most units were unable to achieve the standard, "the feasibility of achieving this standard must be questioned"! Vohra et al⁴ and Bjorklund and Hellstrom-Westas⁵ have shown that admission temperature is significantly increased if evaporative heat loss is prevented during resuscitation by occlusive wrapping after birth.

Since 2000, we . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Fantoms

Martin Ward Platt
Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2004 89: F1. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• American Heart Association, American Academy of Pe, (2006). 2005 American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) of Pediatric and Neonatal Patients: Neonatal Resuscitation Guidelines. Pediatrics 117: e1029-e1038 [Full Text]  
• The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitati, (2006). The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Consensus on Science With Treatment Recommendations for Pediatric and Neonatal Patients: Neonatal Resuscitation. Pediatrics 117: e978-e988 [Full Text]  
• (2005). Part 13: Neonatal Resuscitation Guidelines. Circulation 112: IV-188-IV-195 [Full Text]  
• Acolet, D., Elbourne, D., McIntosh, N., Weindling, M., Korkodilos, M., Haviland, J., Modder, J., Macintosh, M., on behalf of the Confidential Enquiry Into Materna, (2005). Project 27/28: Inquiry Into Quality of Neonatal Care and Its Effect on the Survival of Infants Who Were Born at 27 and 28 Weeks in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Pediatrics 116: 1457-1465 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• (2005). Part 7: Neonatal Resuscitation. Circulation 112: III-91-III-99 [Full Text]  
• Laing, I A (2005). How has research in the last five years changed my clinical practice?. Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 90: F364-F367 [Abstract] [Full Text]