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).

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.

Intrapulmonary percussive ventilation (IPV) therapy is an airway clearance therapy that combines percussion, high-velocity flow, and entrainment to mobilize secretions and address gas exchange impairment. The therapy can be delivered through a mouthpiece or mask, directly to the airway, or in-line with a ventilator, making it versatile for a range of patient populations.

The IPV 1 is a safe and effective airway clearance device that builds on the Percussionaire legacy of IPV therapy with a Unified Connector that supports patient safety, a patient-friendly interface, and the unique efficacy of the Phasitron.

Along with IPV therapy’s clinical results in treating patients with respiratory complications, it has a demonstrated history of being safe and well-tolerated across diverse patient populations, care settings, and delivery interfaces.

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.

This animation offers a simple explanation for how transcutaneous monitoring works in the NICU to support balanced care for these fragile patients.