Drying Very Preterm Infants Before Plastic Wrapping at Birth: A Randomized Clinical Trial - PubMed
4 hours ago
- #thermal management
- #preterm infants
- #neonatal care
- The study compared two thermal management strategies for very preterm infants: drying before plastic wrapping versus plastic wrapping without drying.
- The primary outcome was normothermia (36.5-37.5 °C) at NICU admission, with no significant difference between the two groups (45.8% vs. 46.3%).
- There was no significant difference in mean temperature at NICU admission between dried and undried infants (36.4 °C vs. 36.5 °C).
- In-hospital mortality was higher in the dried group (14.7%) compared to the undried group (5.6%), but this was not linked to the intervention.
- Approximately half of the infants were outside the normal thermal range at NICU admission, indicating thermal management remains a challenge.
- The study concluded that drying before plastic wrapping provided no additional benefit in maintaining normothermia for very preterm infants.