AN OPERATION used to help premature babies get enough oxygen may itself cause brain damage, animal studies suggest. The work is likely to fuel debate about the best way to treat premature babies.
To try to get an objective measure of how treatments affect babies鈥� brains, a team led by Sandra Rees and Terrie Inder of Melbourne University in Australia examined the brains of 22 baboons born prematurely by Caesarean section at about the same stage of development as a 27-week human baby. At birth, all were placed on respirators. Five days later, some had an operation to close a blood vessel called the ductus arteriosus, which allows blood to bypass the lungs while a fetus is in the womb. Nine days after this, the baby baboons that had had the operation appeared to have more damage to the parts of the brain responsible for high-level cognitive function, Rees told a meeting of the Australian Neuroscience Society in Melbourne last month.
Closing the ductus arteriosus can be vital to ensure that premature babies get enough oxygen and can be taken off respirators, which are thought to cause lung and brain damage when used for long periods. Non-surgical ways of closing the vessel, such as giving the baby ibuprofen, may work well in older premature babies, but are less effective in those who are very premature.
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