Bristol baby’s future saved by xenon gas treatment

The future of a tiny newborn Bristol baby has been brightened by a pioneering new medical treatment.

Following a lack of oxygen at birth, baby Riley Joyce was treated with xenon gas at St Michaels Hospital in Bristol.

The rare  and expensive gas forms part of a cooling technique developed by University of Bristol Professor Marianne Thoresen.

Professor Thoresen began cooling babies in 1998 after finding that brain injury in animals could be reduced through this method.

More than 1000 healthy babies suffer brain injury every year due to a lack of oxygen when they are born, leading to a life time of disabilities such as cerebral palsy.

Working with Dr John Dingley of Swansea University and funded by children’s medical research charity Sparks, at least 12 more babies will benefit from this treatment in the coming months.

Professor Marianne Thoresen said: “Xenon is a very rare and chemically inert anaesthetic gas found in tiny quantities in the air that we breathe.  In 2002 John Dingley and I realised the potential xenon and cooling might have in combination to further reduce disability.  Over the past eight years, we have shown in the laboratory that xenon adds to the protective effect of cooling on the brain; however we faced the challenge of how to successfully deliver this rare and extremely expensive gas to newborn babies.”