Biomedical instrumentation & technology / Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
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Biomed Instrum Technol · Nov 2010
Comparative StudyPrototype hybrid systems for neonatal warming: in vitro comparisons to standard of care devices.
Preterm infants lack necessary thermoregulation. An ideal incubator should maintain a uniform and constant thermal environment. We compared the effectiveness of a supplemental heating blanket to improve the heating characteristics of two different incubator warming devices using assessment of their respective function alone as controls. ⋯ The heating blanket enhances the thermal response of device A during warmup, but does not alter those of device B. With the side door open, device A shows a smaller (-16.5% ; p < 0.05) temperature variation than device B; the heating blanket attenuates the temperature change in both devices. These results demonstrate that the use of a supplemental heating blanket, as well as device-related differences, may impact clinical control of a thermal environment.