Neonatal Neurology Intensive Care (Neuro-NICU)
SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital has a dedicated neonatal neurology intensive care program that offers bedside neurological monitoring technology and the use of video EEG, amplitude-integrated EEG, and near infrared spectroscopy.
These technologies enable specialists, including neonatologists, pediatric neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons, to safely monitor critical brain functions such as cerebral blood flow and volume, oxygen saturation, and seizures in babies with neurologic injury or deficits.
In addition to NICU neuro-intensive services, the Division of Neonatology and the Division of Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery work with regional community hospitals in both Missouri and Illinois to educate physicians on standardized protocols for early identification of neonatal encephalopathy, timely referral to Level IV NICU care, and neuroimaging in preterm babies as well as options for neurosurgery interventions.
SOOTHE Clinical Trial
SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital is the principal site for a novel clinical trial within its neonatal neurology program that is designed to identify sensory interventions that can positively influence brain development in premature infants.
This is called the Sensory Optimization of the Hospital Environment (SOOTHE) study. The clinical trial is funded by a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Principal investigator is Amit Mathur, MD, Director of the Division of Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
The clinical trial, which began in early 2023, will determine if multidimensional sensory interventions such as sensory massage, singing, reading, and kangaroo skin-to-skin care, can positively influence brain maturation and development in preterm babies. Previous studies have found that babies in the NICU are under significant stressors, which is part of standard NICU care and essential for close monitoring and management of these fragile infants.
These stressors include heel sticks, IV insertion, excessive noise, tape removal, etc. Infants with increased stressful exposures had poor brain growth and worse brain connectivity. The SOOTHE trial will evaluate the impact of various positive sensory interventions that are gestationally age-specific and timed to occur daily throughout a baby’s stay in the NICU to see if these interventions can counter the impact of environmental stress. Child neurodevelopment will be measured over the first two years of a baby’s life following discharge from the hospital.