Brain cooling reduces the risk of post-neonatal epilepsy in newborns affected by moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Only perinatal asphyxia with extensive lesions in basal ganglia and thalami plus cortical and white matter lesion conveys an high risk for early and severe post-neonatal epilepsy. Moreover therapeutic hypothermia is associated with a decrease of the risk of developing post-neonatal epilepsy.