Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy

Abstract

Neonatal encephalopathy (NE) is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome manifesting as impaired neurological dysfunction, including impaired consciousness or seizures, difficulty in initiating and maintaining breathing, loss of reflexes, and tonus in newborns born > 35 weeks of gestation. Neonatal encephalopathy can occur for various reasons, among which, perinatal asphyxia and neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) are responsible for the majority of cases. Studies have focused on symptoms and have been insufficient in respect of the timing of damage in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Risk factors are evaluated as antenatal and intrapartum. Therapeutic hypothermia has become the current gold standard treatment, as studies have demonstrated that it has resulted in a decrease in mortality and neurological sequelae rates in newborns with moderate and severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.