Car seat or car bed for very low birth weight infants at discharge home.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the incidence of apnea, bradycardia, or desaturation in a car seat with that in a car bed for preterm very low birth weight (< or = 1500 g) infants.


METHODS
Infants were studied for 120 minutes in a car seat and in a car bed. Apnea (> 20 seconds), bradycardia (heart rate < 80/min for > 5 seconds), desaturation (SpO2 < 88% for > 10 seconds), and absent nasal flow were monitored.


RESULTS
We assessed 151 infants (median birth weight, 1120 g [range, 437 to 3105]; median birth gestational age, 29 weeks [24 to 34]) in both devices. Twenty-three infants (15%) had > or = 1 event in the car seat compared with 29 (19%) in the car bed (P = .4). Time to first event was similar in the car seat and car bed (mean, 54 to 55 minutes). In logistic regression analyses, bronchopulmonary dysplasia was a significant predictor for a car seat event and a lower gestational age at birth was a risk factor for a car bed event.


CONCLUSIONS
We found no evidence that an event is less likely in a car bed than in a car seat. Whichever device is used, very low birth weight infants require observation during travel.
Salhab
Walid A
WA
Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA. walid.salhab@UTsouthwestern.edu
Khattak
Asif
A
Tyson
Jon E
JE
Crandell
Sharon
S
Sumner
Jan
J
Goodman
Beverly
B
Fisher
Linda
L
Robinson
Karen
K
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control; D001334:Automobile Driving; D001513:Beds; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015370:Infant Equipment; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008297:Male; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011336:Probability; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012494:Sampling Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric