Evaluation of changes made to an infant home apnea monitoring program in response to findings from a national consensus panel.

A comparison was made of two different management methods that were developed to help follow high-risk infants on home apnea or bradycardia monitors. With the first method (group 1), used before 1986, decisions were based partly on home pneumogram results. The second method (group 2), based partly on suggestions about monitoring from a national consensus panel, mainly uses clinical history to assist with making decisions. Comparisons were made between the two groups of infants in a retrospective clinical analysis. The infants in group 2, on the average, had significantly fewer days on a monitor than group 1 (174 vs 324) and had much fewer pneumogram tests (0.3 vs 1.6). Several advantages in using a specific monitoring follow-up procedure were noted, including the benefits to the parents from using a consistent plan for management.