In the NICU, closely monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2) levels is a crucial aspect of care for premature and critically ill infants — fluctuations in CO2 levels can disrupt cerebral blood flow, increasing the risk of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), and other cerebral injuries.¹

In a small baby unit, transcutaneous CO2 monitoring can support care teams in delivering the high level of care preterm babies require. The technology provides continuous CO2 monitoring, supporting timely assessments of respiratory status to aid in protecting the vulnerable brains and lungs of neonatal patients.

In the NICU, critically ill and premature babies receive specialized, around-the-clock care to support their fragile health. This often means using respiratory support to help with their breathing, especially important for little ones with underdeveloped or compromised lungs. By using transcutaneous CO2 monitoring, NICU teams can keep a constant eye on their status, which helps them fine-tune and optimize the support they need.

Introducing any new technology in a clinical setting can be an exciting time – you’re eager to use your new tool and see the benefits for patients – especially in the NICU where the smallest, sickest babies are.

In neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), blood sampling, including arterial blood gas (ABG) tests and capillary blood tests (commonly known as a ‘heel stick’), plays an important role in patient monitoring. These tests help care teams monitor a variety of parameters, including blood pH levels and concentrations of vital gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2).

Chronic hypercapnia, characterized by elevated levels of CO2, poses a significant challenge for individuals with conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), neuromuscular disorders (NMD), and obesity. Although the negative effects of chronic hypercapnia are widely acknowledged, researchers at the University of Michigan are shedding light on the true urgency of its management.

How can NICU teams ensure that all of these priorities are adequately managed? Here, we’ll take a deeper look at NICU ventilation, the challenges that clinicians face, and strategies that can help.

This whitepaper discusses three pediatric patient populations that are difficult to manage on mechanical ventilation and how continuous monitoring of CO2 can serve as a powerful tool to support noninvasive ventilation (NIV) strategies and therapies in the PICU.

We may not typically consider blood draws and heel sticks to be a large driver of patients losing blood, but the issue carries greater significance with neonatal patients, who don’t have much blood to give in the first place.

There is a long list of decisions to make when adopting new technology in a hospital unit, and transcutaneous monitoring is no exception. Some of the most overlooked decisions in our experience are those around mounting and storing the devices both during monitoring, while not in use, as well as for performing maintenance.