Humidifying infant incubators facilitates heat retention, but entails an infection risk from microbial humidifier contamination. The Royal Victoria Hospital nursery was recently reequipped with steam humidity source incubators and converted to incubator humidification. An observational (before-after) study investigated the association between incubator humidification and hypernatremia and (secondarily) other hydration associated outcomes in very premature infants. / Thirty-one incubator humidification and 60 non-humidification period infants were compared. Mean gestational age was 25.83 weeks for both groups. Mean highest serum sodium values were 143.5 (SD 9.4) and 152.9 (SD 4.9) mEq/l respectively (p < 0.001). Differences persisted after adjustment for confounding by age of placement in incubators, and in spite of fluid reduction in the D humidification period. Of infants with umbilical lines 2/16 and 33155 respectively attained serum potassium measurements over 6.9 mEq/l (p = .04). Overhydration outcomes did not differ, but power was limited and confounding was problematic for these analyses. / In summary, incubator humidification is associated with decreased hypernatremia and hyperkalemia in very premature infants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20803 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Berry, Margaret, 1951- |
| Contributors | Dougherty, G. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001604927, proquestno: MQ44126, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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