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Postscript
Letter
Current availability of cerebral function monitoring and therapeutic hypothermia equipment in UK neonatal units and networks
  1. Sarah Mescall1,
  2. Madhuvanthi Dhamodaran2,
  3. Paul Clarke2,3,
  4. Vennila Ponnusamy1
  1. 1 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chertsey, UK
  2. 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich, UK
  3. 3 Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Vennila Ponnusamy, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chertsey KT16 0PZ, UK; Vennilaponnusamy{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320493

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    Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) with intracorporeal temperature monitoring commenced within 6 hours of birth is standard of care for babies with suspected hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy.1 While the 2010 British Association of Perinatal Medicine position statement advised active or passive cooling to provide TH,2 subsequent data from transport services showed that active cooling with intracorporeal temperature monitoring minimised stabilisation and transfer times and achieved target temperature in 100% of cases compared with passive cooling.3 Routine cerebral function monitoring (CFM) can aid the early diagnosis and treatment of encephalopathy and seizures. Our previous UK-wide survey in 2009 highlighted that overall <50% of units across the UK had CFM and <30% had active cooling equipment.4 A decade on, we have repeated a UK-wide telephone survey to understand the current situation.

    Between December 2019 …

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    Footnotes

    • SM and MD are joint first authors.

    • Twitter @DocNila

    • Contributors VP and PC conceived and designed the study; SM and MD conducted the telephone survey and collected the data. SM wrote the first manuscript draft. All authors contributed to manuscript revision and approved the final version. VP is guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.