Evidence Based Skin Care in Preterm Neonates- A Short Review

Abstract

Preterm neonates are the neonates born alive before completion of 37 weeks of gestation. Prematurity is the real threat for survival of these neonates, especially those who are very-preterm (less than 32 weeks). In developing countries due to lack of basic care such as maintenance of warm chain, breast feeding support, infection control and scarcity of resources to tackle respiratory difficulties; the mortality in preterm infants is very high. Good skin care is a critical component of the basic neonatal care, that can directly reduce complications of prematurity as well address issues arising during the handling of these preterm infants such as injuries due to adhesives or devices, skin dryness, the use of skin emollients and disinfectants etc. In contemporary era, evidence-based practices are the need of hour to guide clinical practice. There are limited research articles dealing with skin care in preterm neonates that offer strong recommendations for skin care modalities. In this short review, the authors have compiled the recent evidences to address various issues related to skin care in very preterm neonates. In this article the evidences related to bathing practices in preterm infants, and the use of disinfectants and emollients for premature skin care has been discussed; besides making general recommendation related to skin care in preterm infants. Keywords: Preterm, skin care, emollients, disinfectant, neonate, prematurity, premature skin.