Introduction: The possibility that hypothermia has a therapeutic role during or after resuscitation from severe perinatal asphyxia has been a longstanding focus of research. Studies designed around this fact have shown that moderate cerebral hypothermia, initiated as early as possible, has been associated with potent, long-lasting neuroprotection in perinatal patients.
Objectives: To review the benefits of hypothermia in improving cellular function, based on the cellular characteristics of hypoxic-ischemic cerebral injury and compare the results of two different methods of cooling the brain parenchyma.
Methods: Medline, Lilacs, Scielo, and PubMed were searched for articles registered between 1990 and 2019 in Portuguese and English, focused on trials comparing the safety and effectiveness of total body cooling with selective head cooling with HIE.
Results: We found that full-body cooling provides homogenous cooling to all brain structures, including the peripheral and central regions of the brain. Selective head cooling provides a more extensive cooling to the cortical region of the brain than to the central structures.
Conclusions: Both methods demonstrated to have neuroprotective properties, although full-body cooling provides a broader area of protection. Recently, head cooling combined with some body cooling has been applied, which is the most promising approach. The challenge for the future is to find ways of improving the effectiveness of the treatment.