American Academy of Pediatrics – Section on Perinatal Pediatrics
View all recommendations from this societyReleased July 20, 2015
Avoid routine use of pneumograms for pre-discharge assessment of ongoing and/or prolonged apnea of prematurity.
Cardio-respiratory events are common in both term and preterm infants. Although there may be a role for pneumograms in selected cases where the etiology of the events is in doubt, they have not been shown to reduce acute life-threatening events or mortality from their routine use.
These items are provided solely for informational purposes and are not intended as a substitute for consultation with a medical professional. Patients with any specific questions about the items on this list or their individual situation should consult their physician.
How The List Was Created
The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Perinatal Pediatrics (SoPPe) Executive Committee employed a national survey of representative newborn medicine providers from SoPPe and the Vermont-Oxford Network. Survey recipients were asked to consider the range of testing and treatments conducted on high and low risk newborns. They were then asked them to provide examples of tests and treatments that, in their opinion, best met any or all of the following criteria: there is evidence of lack of efficacy, there is insufficient evidence of efficacy, or the test or treatment unnecessarily utilized staffing or material resources. Among the recipients, 1047 responded with a total of 2870 suggestions of tests and treatments. These responses were then collated and presented to an expert panel of 51 individuals representing 28 national and regional stakeholder perinatal care organizations. A modified Delphi process utilizing electronic survey techniques was used to narrow the list to the Top 5 over three rounds. During the initial round, the panel reduced the top 22 general categories of tests and treatments to 13. The reintroduction of specific clinical contexts, derived from the original survey, resulted in 24 items that were reduced to 12 in the second round. In the final round, the panel was provided with GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) literature summaries of the top 12 to ensure that all current evidence was considered. The final list was reviewed and approved by the Academy’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
AAP’s disclosure and conflict of interest policy can be found at www.aap.org.
Sources
Di Fiore T. Use of sleep studies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Neonatal Netw. 2005 Jan;24(1):23-30.
Ramanathan R, Corwin MJ, Hunt CE, Lister G, Tinsley LR, Baird T, Silvestri JM, Crowell DH, Hufford D, Martin RJ, Neuman MR, Weese-Mayer DE, Cupples LA, Peucker M, Willinger M, Keens TG; Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation (CHIME) Study Group. Cardiorespiratory events recorded on home monitors: Comparison of healthy infants with those at increased risk for SIDS. JAMA. 2001 May 2;285(17):2199-207.
