10-12 Neonatal Flashcards
(38 cards)
Very low birth weight
- Equal or less than 3 lb 5 oz (1500 g)
- 23-24 wks gestation
- Increases incidence in birth defects
Gestational Age (GA)
- Length of time in utero
Chronological Age (CA)
- Age based on birthday
Corrected/Adjusted Age (AA)
- Considers age baby is from due date
Post-Conceptual Age
- AA prior to achieving term age
- GA + CA
Term Adjusted Age
- CA - #weeks missed in utero
NICU Levels
- Level 1: Minimal observation or care; small community hospital; “Well-baby nursery”
- Level 2: Step down from Level III; continued care from Level III, IV meds or alimentation, tube feedings, O2; regional or community hospitals
- Level 3: Highly specialized services for sickest and most fragile infants - complex, medical interventions, advanced diagnostic testing, surgery, resp. support; Teaching hospitals and affiliated with medical schools
- Level 4: Level III plus ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation)
Family-Centered Care
- Parents, children, significant others
- The “constant” in an infant’s life
Coping and Grief
- Stages of grieving: Shock, Denial, Anger, Guilt, Adjustment, Acceptance
- May interfere with bonding
- Staff facilitates bonding, provides empathy
Basic requirements for survival
- Physiological: breathing, feeding, growing
- Sensorimotor: rooting, sucking, grasping, clearing the airway in prone, horizontal and vertical tracking
- Affective/Communications: crying, self-consoling, eye contact, facial animation, eye aversion
- Complex: auditory preferences, taste preferences, visual preferences, imitative capacities
- Primary “work”: feeding (sucking + swallowing + breathing requires skill as well as energy
Failure in Feeding in Pre-Term or Sick Full-Term Babies
- Learned oral aversion resulting from NICU care
- Lack of flex/ext balance and chin tuck to assist with sucking, swallowing, breathing
- Residual lung disease may cause tachynea; interferes with sucking and swallowing
- Lack of self-regulation; unable to calm self with environmental stressors
- Apnea
- Bradycardia
- Unable to coordinate sucking, swallowing, breathing, and becomes physiologically unstable
- Immature GI Tract
PM: Respiratory Distress Syndrome
- Pulmonary immaturity, inadequate pulmonary surfactant
- Surfactant lowers the surface tension and allows the alveoli to maintain its shape
PM: Patent Ductus Arteriosus
- Structure bypasses circulation to lungs pre-birth
- Normal fetal circulation: Hole in R ventricle and L pulmonary artery allows blood to circulate in utero
- Closes within 10-15 hours after delivery
- If does not close, prevents oxygenation of blood, results in hypotension, poor perfusion, CHF
PM: Hyperbilirubinemia
- Accumulation of bilirubin (liver enzyme) in the blood
- Caused by immature hepatic function
- Bilirubin can accumulate in the brain and cause neuronal damage - must be addresed right away
PM: Gastroesophageal Reflux (GER)
- Some degree is normal, asymptomatic
- Frequent episodes can damage esophageal lining - inflammation, dysmotility, pain
- Leads to poor oral feeding patterns, oral aversion and excessive crying due to pain
PM: Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC)
- Acute inflammation of the immature intestine causes acute intestinal necrosis
- Cause: Injury to intestinal mucosal lining
- Doubled in those exposed to cocaine (vasoconstrictive effects in intestine)
PM: Germinal Matrix-Intraventricular Hemorrhage (GM-IVH)
- Occurs in those less than 32 weeks gestation
- Most common brain lesion in premature infants
- Hemorrhage in brain extends to the area between lateral ventricles
PM: Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL)
- Areas of white matter adjacent to the lateral ventricles become necrotic
PM: Retinopathy of Prematurity
- Retinopathy: Vasoproliferative disease of immature retina
- Cause: Alteration in normal development of blood vessels in eye
- Higher risk in those born less than 30 weeks gestation
PM: Prenatal Cocaine Exposure
- Defects: Dependency, malnutrition, retarded intrauterine growth
- Infant may go through withdrawal
- Can cause placental vasoconstriction and decreased uterine blood flow
PM: Chorioamnionitis
- Cervicovaginal bacteria invades amniotic cavity, causing inflammatory response in membranes of the developing fetus
- Most common cause of preterm labor
- Infant more susceptible to brain damage and intestinal abnormalities
PM: Osteopenia
- Decrease in bone density
- Occurs because of immature bone development
- 80% of bone formed between 24 and 40 weeks; 3rd semester essential for bone formation
PM: Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD)
- Most common chronic lung disease associated with prematurity
- Causes: Effects of O2 toxicity, barotrauma, volutrauma from mechanical ventilation on immature infant lungs
- Alternatives: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), high frequency ventilation (HFV)
Meconium Aspiration Syndrome
- During delivery, fetus may pass BM into amniotic fluid; as infant gasps for first breath, may aspirate meconium-tainted fluid
- Meconium particles obstruct airway, interfere with gas exchange; leads to respiratory distress