Interventions to prevent hypothermia at birth in preterm and/or low birthweight babies

• Published in: Cochrane database of systematic reviews 2005-01 (1), p.CD004210-CD004210
• Main Authors: McCall, E M, Alderdice, F A, Halliday, H L, Jenkins, J G, Vohra, S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Humans; Hypothermia - prevention & control; Infant, Low Birth Weight; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Infant, Premature, Diseases - prevention & control; Perinatal Care - methods; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
• ISSN: 1469-493X
• DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004210.pub2

Hypothermia incurred during routine postnatal resuscitation is a world-wide issue (across all climates), with associated morbidity and mortality. Keeping vulnerable preterm infants warm is problematic even when recommended routine thermal care guidelines are followed in the delivery suite. To assess efficacy and safety of interventions, designed for prevention of hypothermia in preterm and/or low birthweight infants, applied within 10 minutes after birth in the delivery suite compared with routine thermal care. The standard search strategy of The Cochrane Collaboration was followed. Electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE (1966 to May Week 4 2004 ), CINAHL (1982 to May Week 4 2004), EMBASE (1974 to 09/07/04), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2004), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE 1994 to July 2004), conference/symposia proceedings using ZETOC (1993 to July 2004), ISI proceedings (1990 to 09/07/2004) and OCLC WorldCat (July 2004). Identified articles were cross-referenced. No language restrictions were imposed. All trials using randomised or quasi-randomised allocations to test a specific intervention designed to prevent hypothermia, (apart from 'routine' thermal care) applied within 10 minutes after birth in the delivery suite to infants of < 37 weeks' gestational age or birthweight