The prime objective of golden hour is to use evidence based interventions and treatment for better neonatal outcome, importantly for extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGAN). There are many interventions that needs to be practiced in golden hour for neonatal care so that neonatal complications are minimized. The neonatal management in the first hour of life have an important effect on both immediate and long-term outcomes of all neonates. was the first person to implement this concept in the neonatal care. Adams Cowley gave the concept of “Golden Hour” in emergency medicine and showed that with the use of golden hour approach there was decrease in patient mortality with better transport and patient outcome. The golden hour term has been adopted from adult trauma where it is used for the initial first hour of trauma management. The concept of “Golden Hour” has been introduced recently in field of neonatology, highlighting the importance of neonatal care in the first 60 minutes of postnatal life. In this review article, we will discuss various components of neonatal care that are included in “Golden hour” of preterm and term neonatal care.
The studies that evaluated the concept of golden hour in preterm neonates showed marked reduction in hypothermia, hypoglycemia, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
Initial first hour of neonatal life includes neonatal resuscitation, post-resuscitation care, transportation of sick newborn to neonatal intensive care unit, respiratory and cardiovascular support and initial course in nursery. Although the current evidence supports the concept of golden hour in preterm and still there is no evidence seeking the benefit of golden hour approach in term neonates, but neonatologist around the globe feel the importance of golden hour concept equally in both preterm and term neonates. The “Golden hour” concept includes practicing all the evidence based intervention for term and preterm neonates, in the initial sixty minutes of postnatal life for better long-term outcome. This concept in neonatology has been adopted from adult trauma where the initial first hour of trauma management is considered as golden hour. “Golden Hour” of neonatal life is defined as the first hour of post-natal life in both preterm and term neonates.