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Review
. 2024 Jul;20(7):643-652.
doi: 10.1007/s12519-024-00818-x. Epub 2024 Jun 12.

Thermoregulation, incubator humidity, and skincare practices in appropriate for gestational age ultra-low birth weight infants: need for more evidence

Umesh Mishra  1   2 , Deanne August  3   4 , Karen Walker  1   5 , Pranav R Jani  6   7 , Mark Tracy  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Thermoregulation, incubator humidity, and skincare practices in appropriate for gestational age ultra-low birth weight infants: need for more evidence

Umesh Mishra et al. World J Pediatr. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Although not universal, active care is being offered to infants weighing < 500 g at birth, referred to as ultra-low birth weight (ULBW) infants appropriate for gestational age. These infants have the greatest risk of dying or developing major morbidities. ULBW infants face challenges related to fluid and heat loss as well as skin injury in the initial days of life from extreme anatomical and physiological immaturity of the skin. Although there is an emerging literature on the outcomes of ULBW infants, there is a paucity of evidence to inform practice guidelines for delivering optimal care to this cohort of infants.

Data sources: A comprehensive review of the literature was performed using the PubMed and Embase databases. Searched keywords included "thermoregulation or body temperature regulation", "incubator humidity", "skin care", "infant, extremely low birth weight" and "ultra-low birth weight infants".

Results: Evidences for thermoregulation, incubator humidity, and skincare practices are available for preterm infants weighing < 1500 g at birth but not specifically for ULBW infants. Studies on thermoregulation, incubator humidity, or skincare practices had a small sample size and did not include a sub-group analysis for ULBW infants. Current practice recommendations in ULBW infants are adopted from research in very and/or extremely low birth weight infants.

Conclusions: This narrative review focuses on challenges in thermoregulation, incubator humidity, and skincare practices in ULBW infants, highlights current research gaps and suggests potential developments for informing practices for improving health outcomes in ULBW infants. Video abstract (MP4 1,49,115 kb).

Keywords: Incubator humidity; Neonatal intensive care unit; Skincare; Thermoregulation; Ultra-low birth weight.

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Conflict of interest statement

No financial or non-financial benefits have been received or will be received from any party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Thermoregulation, incubator humidity and skincare practices in ultra-low birth infants
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