Therapeutic hypothermia brings favorable neurologic outcomes in children with near drowning

Ming-Chun Chen^a, Chia-Hsiang Chu^a, Ching-Feng Cheng^{a, b}, Jun-Song Lin^a, Jui-Hsia Chen^a, Yu-Hsun Chang^{a, c},

a Department of Pediatrics, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan
b Department of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
c Institute of Medical Science, College of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

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Open Access funded by Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

Abstract

A 1-year-10-month-old boy was admitted to our pediatric intensive care unit due to near drowning with pulmonary edema. A conventional ventilator with 100% oxygen supplementation was used initially, but was shifted to high frequency oscillatory ventilation as his oxygen saturation was around 84–88%. Therapeutic hypothermia was applied due to hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy with severe acidosis. His respiratory condition improved and he was extubated successfully on the 6th hospital day. The patient had no obvious neurological defects and he was discharged in a stable condition after 17 days of hospitalization. Our case report demonstrates the advantages of therapeutic hypothermia on survival and neurological outcomes in treating pediatric near drowning patients.

Keywords

Children; Drowning; Hypothermia therapy; Near-drowning; Therapeutic hypothermia