Septicemia in a Neonate following Therapeutic Hypothermia: The Literature Review of Evidence

We report a term neonate with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy who underwent a 72-hour therapeutic hypothermia. He developed unstable body temperature associated with coagulase negative staphylococcus septicemia 2 weeks later which was promptly treated with intravenous antibiotics and made a good recovery. PubMed (a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine) was searched for the terms “therapeutic hypothermia” and “septicemia,” with limits activated (humans, English, age 0–18 years). There were only 6 randomized controlled trials, 1 non-randomized controlled trial, 1 retrospective cohort, and 1 case-control trial, which showed no definite evidence of increased risk of septicemia or neutrophil dysfunction in infants following hypothermia therapy.