Prone or supine for infants with chronic lung disease at neonatal discharge?

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether infants with chronic lung disease (CLD), ready for neonatal unit discharge, maintain cardiorespiratory stability while sleeping supine.

METHODS

Subjects were 15 infants born < 32 weeks gestational age (GA) and ready for discharge from the regional tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. Polysomnography recordings of sleep state, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation, respiratory effort and nasal/oral airflow were taken prone and supine for up to 3 h post feed with the first position randomly allocated. The main outcome measures were oxygen saturation and apnoea hypopnoea index (AHI).

RESULTS

Seven infants (median GA 27 weeks, birthweight 945 g) had CLD and eight infants (median GA 29 weeks, birthweight 1160 g) did not. CLD infants were more mature at study than non-CLD infants (median 39 vs 36 weeks, P = 0.019). Neither oxygen saturation nor AHI were position dependent and no group differences were noted with respect to CLD status. There was a significant interaction of GA and sleep position with less-mature infants spending less time in quiet sleep (QS) in supine position (P = 0.006). These less-mature infants also had a higher AHI (P = 0.033). As expected, the AHI and arousal index (AI) were higher in active sleep (P < or = 0.001, P = 0.013, respectively) and mean oxygen saturation was lower (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The supine position appears appropriate for very preterm infants with CLD going home from the neonatal unit. Respiratory instability on neonatal discharge is more likely to be associated with immaturity than CLD.