Project Lead(s): Renato Rozental
The Baby-Thermocrown is an innovative hat that cools the head of infants that perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy (PAE), a condition of harm to the brain caused by lack of oxygen to the newborn. Therapeutic hypothermia interventions are provenand widely practiced in high-income countries, but expensive and inaccesible in low- and middle-income countries. The Baby-Thermocrown being piloted in Brazil is light, portable, energy-independent, gas-activated device to treat PAE, will be available at $60/unit. It can be easily activated upon demand, delivering selective brain cooling and maintaining focal brain hypothermia of the asphyxiated neonate until gentle re-warming is permissible. Using a two-layer head-cover, the top layer is inflated with cold vapor released from a CO2 gas canister and the lower layer, filled with water, is thereby stably cooled by the upper layer.