Use of oxygen cannulas in extremely low birthweight infants is associated with mucosal trauma and bleeding, and possibly with coagulase-negative staphylococcal sepsis.

OBJECTIVE

We studied the association between the use of oxygen cannulas (OCs) and (1) nasal bleeding and (2) coagulase-negative staphylococcal sepsis (CNSS).

STUDY

DESIGN

Review of care sheets, with chi(2) or sign-test group comparisons.

RESULTS

Infants treated with OCs were suctioned more frequently (2.6 vs 1.3 times per day, p<0.001), and had more bloody nasal secretions (34.6% vs 4.6%, p<0.05) that increased with increasing OC days. By 10 days, 90% of infants had experienced bloody secretions.CNSS occurred less often in infants treated with oxyhoods than those on OC or CPAP (1 of 13, 8%, vs 10 of 44, 23%), but the difference was not significant. Eight of the 10 CNSS episodes clustered within 3 and 7 days of starting CPAP or cannula treatments.

CONCLUSION

OC use in extremely low birthweight infants is associated with nasal mucosal injury and bleeding. Studies are needed to see if use of OCs is a risk factor for CNSS.