title: Brain hypothermia therapy for status epilepticus in childhood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  At the Dokkyo Medical University Hospital, we introduced a brain hypothermia therapy protocol for treating childhood status epilepticus and acute encephalitis/encephalopathy in 2004.
  
  
  METHODS
  This protocol focuses on infants with a minimum age of six months or 7.5 kg in weight. Applicable diseases include acute encephalitis/encephalopathy occurring from status epilepticus or seizures lasting for 30 minutes or longer, in cases such as near drowning, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, post-resuscitation encephalopathy, cardio-respiratory arrest, severe head injury, or other diagnoses in which the pediatric neurologist recognizes the possibility of neurological complications. Brain hypothermia therapy is managed within the intensive care unit (ICU).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The target body temperature is a bladder or rectum temperature of 34.0 to 35.0 degrees. This body temperature is reduced to the target temperature within six hours of the seizures. Hypothermia is maintained for 48 hours and concomitant steroid pulse therapy may be used at appropriate times. Sodium thiopental is used to sedate and rewarming is carried out at 0.5 degrees per 12 hours. Osmotic diuretics, muscle relaxants and circulatory antagonists may be concomitantly used at appropriate times.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper reviews the brain hypothermia therapy protocol.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics; Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, Tochigi, Japan. geo@dokkyomed.ac.jp.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Imataka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wake
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamanouchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Arisaka
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain; D002648:Child; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced; D012640:Seizures / Q000628:therapy*; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000628:therapy*