Feature Story
Health Center Today, June 10, 2010
New NICU Program Helps Babies with Apnea and Acid Reflux
By Carolyn Pennington
Nurse practitioner Claudia Wittenzellner and Dr. Ted Rosenkrantz evaluating an infant for the Breathing and Reflux Program.
Photo by Carolyn Pennington
The Health Center’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit is celebrating a new program. The “Infant Breathing and Reflux Program” offers state-of-the-art care to evaluate and treat apnea and acid reflux of the premature and term newborn.
Patients receive a comprehensive evaluation over a period of 18 hours with a continuous multichannel recording that includes evaluation of breathing patterns and esophageal pH. The NICU team then makes a timely interpretation of the recording and a recommendation for treatment soon follows. The team consists of neonatologists, midlevel practitioners, and a NICU respiratory therapist who is the program coordinator. The Health Center is the only level three NICU in northern Connecticut that offers this service.
“Our program is unique in that the multichannel recording study is four channels versus two and we are able to evaluate the esophageal pH simultaneously,” says Janet Schwenn, clinical respiratory specialist.
Approximately 25 to 75 percent of premature infants will have apnea of prematurity during hospitalization in the NICU. The apnea usually resolves by the time the infant reaches 36 to 40 weeks corrected gestational age. However, in the more immature infant, apnea frequently persists beyond this time requiring further evaluation with a multichannel recording study.
For more information, contact Janet Schwenn, coordinator of IBRP at 860-679-7020.