Post-resuscitation strategies to avoid ongoing injury following intrapartum hypoxia-ischemia

The interruption of placental blood flow during labor with redistribution of cardiac output resulting in increased flow to brain, heart, and adrenal glands at the expense of flow to kidney, gut, and skin can result in systemic organ as well as cerebral injury. Thus, post-resuscitation strategies should focus on both the management of potential systemic organ dysfunction and on methods of preventing ongoing brain injury in high-risk infants. General management strategies should include ventilator management to maintain pCO(2) values in the normal range, close attention to blood pressure to avoid hypotension, striving to avoid hypoglycemia, and control of seizures. Modest hypothermia administered within the first 6 hours has been shown to reduce neurodevelopmental deficits and death in those infants at highest-risk infants for developing hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.