Nettie

We have always used our Radiometer ABL 800 flex blood gas machine as this was believed to be the most accurate way of testing for blood glucose. we use a 0.35mL capillary tube. Any babies that require BGLs are brought to the unit and are sampled and analysed immediately. If for any reason the ABL 800 is not working then a sample is taken in a microlitre collection tube and sent to the lab.

Hi Elizabeth We use sucrose in all our babies. For babies less than 1500g we give 0.1mL sucrose 24% up to 3 doses per procedure. The sucrose we use, this equates to 3 drops. The most inportant thing for those tiny babies is not to give the dose all at once as there is a risk of apnoea / bradycardia. We have being using sucrose in all our babies (24weeks +) since 2009 and we haven't had an increase in NEC. We do limit the number of doses per 24 hours. We used to give up to 10 doses per 24 hours but in 2012 our state guidelines changed to up to 3 doses per procedure and 5 procedures per 24 hours - not sure why they chose this! Regards Nettie

We have recently changed out intravenous syringe pumps and soon we will also include new volumetric pumps and we have had a question raised about what the pump pressures are set at. Could you let me know what your unit's pump pressures are set at and if you have any guidelines about the pressure settings. Is there any evidence to support this? I have found some articles from 2005 but there doesn't appear to be much information about this. Thanks Nettie (South Australia)

I have recently attended a symposium on neonatal haemodynamics and echocardiography. The main theme is that ideally a functional echo should be done especially in the first 12 hours as an infant can have a low mean and good cardiac output or a normal mean and reduced cardiac output. Of course this means that you need someone available that can do a functional echo round the clock which is probably unlikely.