A new medical procedure has been found to save the lives of infants that experienced oxygen deprivation at birth, which is known to cause severe and traumatic brain injuries. Based on recent medical research, this new procedure, known as "brain cooling," can help infants less than six hours old and who were born after at least 36 weeks of gestation battle severe birth injuries developed while in the womb.

The procedure entails placing a cooling blanket, equipped with tubes of cold water flowing through it, on top of a baby for a period of 72 hours. During this period, the flowing water causes the infant's body temperature to decrease to about 91 degrees Fahrenheit. Ultimately, this causes the infant's body systems to slow, which reduces the amount of energy the body needs to operate and reduces swelling in the brain. This prevents further damage from occurring in the brain.

According to one of the lead researchers on the project, brain cooling helps "decrease the amount of cerebral edema, or swelling, around the brain after birth. It also decreases cell death and decreases the release of excitatory factors, which can cause various birth injuries. [Additionally], it decreases inflammation that is typically seen in the brain."

This new treatment is expected to be especially successful with infant who were deprived of oxygen at birth due to strangulation by the umbilical cord around the baby's neck during birth.

This treatment is only being used by academic medical centers currently but researchers hope to someday implement it nationwide.

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