Spring 2008, Volume 11, Issue 1

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Consortium: Hypothermia Cool Kids Trial

by P. David Adelson, MD
Director
CIRCL

Dr. P. David Adelson assumed the role as CIRCL director and principal investigator on March 1, 2008. He has been the lead investigator on a number of federally funded projects by the NIH and CDC for clinical and basic science projects on the acute and chronic management of TBI in children. He is presently the principal investigator of an NIH funded phase III randomized clinical trial for hypothermia following severe pediatric TBI (Cool Kids).

In the Cool Kids Trial, he will continue his ground breaking work by examining the effectiveness of induced hypothermia as a therapy for brain swelling in children who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. He is leading the study that will enroll 340 children from 12 clinical sites across the country over the next 4 years.

“We’ve proven that this therapy is safe, and now, if we find that it is effective, it would be a major breakthrough because there currently are very limited treatments that improve outcome following brain injury, particularly in children,” said Dr. Adelson, director of the Pediatric Neurotrauma Center at Children’s and a Professor and vice chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The belief is that lowering the temperature in the injured brain lessens the cascade of events that lead to brain swelling. Reducing brain swelling potentially could prevent further injury to the brain and improve outcome.”

Patients in the study randomized to receive hypothermia therapy will be cooled to between 32-33 degrees Celsius (89-90 degrees fahrenheit) using special cooling blankets and/or cooled saline injected into the stomach or intravenously. They will be cooled for 48 hours and then followed by researchers for one year to track outcomes, with a battery of tests being conducted at 6 and 12 months following injury.