ICU Monitoring Saves More Babies

HeRO monitor is saving lives in neonatal intensive care units

(RxWiki News) When a new baby has to be admitted the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), it is a frightening time for parents. Healthcare providers are committed to advances to support these babies during their tender start in life.

Data from the March of Dimes indicates that almost 13 percent of babies born each year are preemies. This rate has risen 36 percent over 30 years.

A multi-center studied conducted at some of the finest neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in the world indicates that babies monitored by the Heart Rate Observation System (HeRO) monitor had a reduction in mortality of 20 percent compared to those not on the monitor.

HeRO is an innovative monitoring system providing a new tool for clinical assessments of preemies that picks up signs of distress in an infant's heart earlier than older monitoring systems used in the NICU.

"Ask your neonatologist if the HeRO monitor is available."

The study's lead investigator and co-inventor J. Randall Moorman, M.D., a University of Virginia cardiologist reports that the HeRO monitor speaks for infants who can't communicate for themselves. This early warning system gives neonatal intensive care unit doctors and nurses an earlier chance to render care for these fragile babies.

Dr. Moorman's study, entitled "Mortality reduction by heart rate characteristic monitoring in very low birth weight neonates: a randomized trial," was conducted over a six and a half year period and included over 3,000 preterm infants. All the preterm infants in the NICU either conventional NICU care or standard care plus the use of the HeRO monitor.

The death rate for infants receiving conventional care was 10.2 percent compared to 8.1 percent in the group with enhanced HeRO monitored care.

The results study of the HeRO monitor (MPSC), appear in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Review Date: 
August 25, 2011