Low cost neonatal therapeutic hypothermia device

Abstract

Therapeutic Hypothermia has been indicated as the standard of care for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) in
developed countries. But in the developing countries it is still unknown and only used in some parts of the countries, due to
high cost of the devices and lack of specialist centres for the continuous monitoring of the babies. The need for Therapeutic
hypothermia device is more a requisite in developing countries which lack good health care facilities and maternal health is
poor. To make this therapy available to all sections of the society, a low cost neonatal therapeutic hypothermia device is
proposed which works on the basis of thermoelectric coolers. The device maintains the required temperature based on
feedback from temperature sensors. This paper reports the feasibility and effectiveness of using this Low Cost device for
whole body cooling of neonatal.