Guidelines for ventilator use help premature infants breathe
easier Guidelines that reduce the use of mechanical ventilation
with premature infants in favor of a gentler form of respiratory
support can profoundly affect those children's outcomes while
reducing the cost of care, according to a team of researchers at
Children's Hospital Boston. The team, led by Bernadette
Levesque, MD, of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Children's
Hospital Boston and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at
St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, published their
findings today online in Pediatrics. Children's operates the
NICU at St. Elizabeth's as part of its efforts to promote
community access to pediatric care. Babies born prematurely are
often placed promptly on a mechanical ventilator with a tube in
the airway (intubation) and with supplemental oxygen to help
their immature lungs breathe. The excess pressure placed on the
infant's lungs can lead to ventilator-induced inflammation,
scarring, and potentially bronchop