title: Oral intubation in premature infants with and without stabilizing devices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study evaluated the effects of palatal stabilizing devices (PSDs) on accidental extubations (AEs) and other intubation complications in infants with breathing tubes at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a university hospital. PSDs are individually crafted  acrylic oral devices for stabilizing breathing tubes in neonates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Charts of all first admission NICU neonates weighing less than 1,500 g were reviewed (N =733); 548 were intubated and had information available on birth weight, gender, transfer status, gestational age, length  of admission, ventilator type, sedation, dates of intubations and extubations, number of accidental extubations, dates of PSD placement, and complications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  153 subjects received PSDs, with 19 AEs; 395 received no PSDs, with 31 AEs. Non-PSD neonates were intubated for a median  of 3 and PSD neonates for 26 days. PSDs were associated with sedation, male gender, longer admissions, longer intubation periods, being on a high-frequency ventilator, and low birth weight (P<.05). 0.4 accidental extubations over 100 intubated patient days were recorded for the PSD vs 0.79  for the non-PSD group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Palatal stabilizing devices were not related to other complications of breathing tubes. The PSD group had fewer accidental extubations per days of intubation vs the non-PSD group.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Testa
authors.forename: Shahrbanoo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fadavi
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koerber
authors.forename: Indru
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Punwani
authors.forename: Rama
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhat
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000295:instrumentation*