Table 3. Characteristics of excluded studies on the effects of therapeutic hypothermia on death among asphyxiated neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Excluded Studies	Country	Cooling method	Device	N	Comments	Reasons for exclusion
Horn [56]	South Africa	Selective head cooling	Frozen gel packs	4	Due to wide temperature fluctuations, the study stopped prematurely	Case series
Thomas [57]	India	Whole-body cooling	Frozen gel packs	20	The mean rectal temperature during cooling was 32.96 oC.	Case series
Horn [58]	South Africa	Selective head cooling	Selective head	5	A pilot study with frozen gel packs around the head	Case series
Rajhans [59]	India	Whole-body cooling	Blanketrol II	5	Only two babies completed cooling for 72 hours	Case series
Horn [60]	South Africa	Selective head cooling	Servo controlled Fan	10	Excessive shivering reported in the cooled infants.	Case series
Robertson [61]	Uganda	Whole-body cooling	Water bottles	56	Study protocol of a previously published cooling trial.	Protocol only
Thomas [57]	India	Whole-body cooling	Frozen gel packs	14	The adverse outcome was seen in 3 (2 deaths, 1 developmental delay) of the 14 infants (out of 20)	Case series
Li [62]	China	Whole-body cooling	Not described	93	Hypothermic induced within 10 hours, maintaining rectal temperature 33.5uC for 72 hours.	Study details unclear.
See [63]	Malaysia	Whole-body cooling	Ambient Temperature	17	Cooled by manipulating environmental temperature; report no neurological deficit in 14/15 stage 2 NE babies.	Case series
Horn [64]	South Africa	Selective Head Cooling	Frozen gel packs	14	Active rewarming using a radiant warmer	Case series
Tan [53]	Uganda	Whole-body cooling	Water bottles	19	One year follow up of previously recruited infants from a cooling trial.	Duplicate data