11.12.2019

It was conducted by Andrey Petrovich Averin, the leading Russian neonatologist, head of the neonatal resuscitation and intensive care unit of the Children’s City Clinical Hospital No. 8, Chelyabinsk, Candidate of Medical Sciences. A training workshop on therapeutic hypothermia in Almaty is held as part of the AYALA Academy project with the support of Chevron.

Reducition of infant mortality and disability in Kazakhstan is one of the most important priorities of the AYALA Charity Foundation. During 12 years, the Foundation has been implementing a number of projects to help solve this problem.

Among them is the organization of practical workshops for neonatologists. This week, a 3-day practical workshop on General Issues of Therapeutic Hypothermia was held in Almaty.

More than 50 neonatologists from city and regional perinatal centres and maternity hospitals from Atyrau, Aktobe, Shymkent, Taraz, Semey, Almaty and Almaty oblast took part in the workshop.

In daily practice they encounter various severe pathologies of newborns. Including damage to the central nervous system, which are one of the main causes of death of newborns in our country In 70% of cases this occurs due to hypoxia, which at birth triggers a cascade of pathological physiological processes that cause the death of brain cells in the newborn. In the worst case, this leads to death or severe disability of children.

Therapeutic hypothermia is the main physical (non-drug) method of protecting the brain of newborns from the point of view of evidence-based medicine. As part of the workshop on General Issues of Therapeutic Hypothermia, Andrey Petrovich Averin shared with his Kazakhstani colleagues information and practical developments in such issues as non-invasive monitoring in intensive neonatology, respiratory support in neonatology, thermal protection of newborns, as well as new approaches in intensive neonatology, which will actively be implemented globally in 2020.

In addition, with the active work of the Foundation, the mandatory purchase of hypothermia equipment was included in the Action Plan to reduce infant mortality in Kazakhstan. With the support of major sponsors, the Foundation purchased and transferred 3 hypothermia units to perinatal centres, and 2 more such units are being prepared for installation in Turkestan and Atyrau.