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.