World first: newborn baby treated with xenon gas to prevent brain injury

April 9, 2010 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

A newborn baby in Britain has become the first human to be treated with the noble gas xenon in a bid to prevent brain damage from pregnancy complications.

Riley Joyce was born without a pulse and without breath due to complications during the end stage of mother Sarah Joyce’s pregnancy, which caused her baby’s oxygen supply to be cut off.

Doctors raced to resuscitate the child, delivered via emergency Caesarean section at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. While they were successful, they were also extremely concerned about the long-term effects of such oxygen deprivation. They concluded that Riley had a 50:50 chance of suffering permanent brain injury from the ordeal.

That’s when parents Dave and Sarah Joyce were approached about a new experimental treatment being studied at the University of Bristol and St Michael’s Hospital. The treatment combined more common brain cooling practices with the experimental inclusion of xenon gas in the newborn’s breathing apparatus. The couple agreed.

The xenon treatment was carried out by Professor Marianne Thoresen, the developer of the treatment at the University of Bristol, and her colleague Dr. James Tooley. The team kept the infant cool for 72 hours and also administered a special mix of air that contained xenon gas for the first three hours.

Seven days later, Riley was awake, alert and feeding normally. “We are delighted that Riley is doing so well and we are extremely grateful that we were given this opportunity,” the parents told The Independent.

“It was traumatic to see our baby not breathing, but seeing the ambulance coming to collect Riley to take him to Bristol gave us hope that something could be done to help him,” they added.

According to research literature, xenon gas, a rare and expensive noble gas, seems to have the ability to dilate the capillaries of the brain, allowing for greater flow and absorption of oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood in the tissues of the brain. This xenon treatment, combined with the practice of cooling the body to suppress the processes that cause brain damage, could potentially yield greater results for newborns who suffer oxygen deprivation or similar complications.

The primary difficulty with the xenon treatment is efficiently administering the gas, which can cost as much as 30 pounds per liter. “As even newborns breathe many liters of air per hour, any xenon based treatment would be impossibly expensive without an economical delivery method,” said Dr. John Dingley of Swansea University, who helped Thoresen develop the treatment.

“Despite these challenges, the lack of side-effects and brain protecting properties of xenon make it uniquely attractive as a potential treatment to apply alongside cooling in these babies. We are very grateful to Sparks, the children’s medical research charity, for supporting us in making this happen.”

Following the success of the procedure on Riley Joyce, the team has received approval to further test their efficient xenon delivery system in clinical trials on no less than 12 more babies in the coming months. This feasibility trial will determine if the treatment can be expanded to more expansive trials in the future.