for care of premmies, which is better incubator or open care system. Dr Ashish

There are 2 cochrane reviews on this issue:

Gray compared Cot-nursing versus incubator care for preterm infants: 173 patients included, no conclusion possible

New reviewed the optimal weight to transfer babies to the open cot: only quasi-randomized controlled trials: no conclusion possible

Laroia: there is no real difference between one-wall and two-wall incubators

As a warning though: in this review from Flenady the authors showed that radiant warmers increase IWL (insensible water loss) considerably, but as you can see there is not alot of data out there.

in our set up we follow a rough guide.

Less than 1000 gm incubator

above 1000 gm open care. we always calculate allowance for IWL

Hi, in our unit the practice is to admit all preterm babies into incubators. We use Omnibeds for the very tiny prems and Giraffe incubators for the others. Term babies (meconium aspiration or exposure, CDH, Omphalocele, Gastroschisis etc) are usually admitted onto open warmers for reasons of ease of access. We humidify our incubators for babies less than 30 weeks gestation - the duration of humidification varies according to the gestation. Our 24 weekers are humidified for a month, starting at 80% and gradually decreasing after the first 2 weeks. We have no difficulties using the Omnibeds since the top lifts up for ease of access for PICC line insertion and other procedures. I hope this information is helpful.