PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Helen Campbell
AU  - Oya Eddama
AU  - Denis Azzopardi
AU  - A David Edwards
AU  - Brenda Strohm
AU  - Oliver Rivero-Arias
TI  - Hypothermia for perinatal asphyxia: trial-based quality of life at 6–7 years
AID  - 10.1136/archdischild-2017-313733
DP  - 2018 Jul 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood
PG  - 654--659
VI  - 103
IP  - 7
4099  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/103/7/654.short
4100  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/103/7/654.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child2018 Jul 01; 103
AB  - Objective To assess the impact of hypothermic neural rescue at birth on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in middle childhood.Design Six-year to 7-year follow-up of surviving children from the Total Body Hypothermia for Neonatal Encephalopathy (TOBY) Trial.Setting Community study including a single parental questionnaire to collect information on children’s HRQL.Patients 145 children (70 in the control group, 75 in the hypothermia group) whose parents consented and returned the questionnaire.Interventions Intensive care with cooling of the body to 33.5°C for 72 hours or intensive care alone.Main outcome measures HRQL attributes and utility scores using the Health Utilities Index (HUI).Results At 6–7 years, speech appeared disproportionately affected when compared with other aspects of HRQL but levels of normal emotional functioning were similar in both groups. The mean (SE) HUI3 HRQL scores were 0.73 (0.05) in the hypothermia group and 0.62 (0.06) in the control group; mean difference (95% CI) 0.11 (−0.04 to 0.26).Conclusions Findings of non-significant differences were not unexpected; the study used data from long-term survivors in a neonatal trial and was underpowered. However, results favoured moderate hypothermia and so complement the clinical results of the TOBY Children study. The work provides further insight into the long-term HRQL impact of perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy and provides previously unavailable utility data with which to contemplate the longer term cost-effectiveness of hypothermic neural rescue.Trial registration number This study reports on the follow-up of the TOBY clinical trial: ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT01092637.