Skin care management practices for premature infants

To describe current skin care practices for preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units in the United States. We hypothesized that there would be little consensus among facilities. Neonatal intensive care units (n = 823) listed in the 1996 United States Neonatologists Directory (American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Perinatal Pediatrics) were sent a 28-question survey dealing with many aspects of neonatal skin care along with descriptive data about their neonatal intensive care unit. Descriptive data analysis was performed. A total of 305 surveys were returned (37% return rate); of these, 241 of the respondents reported admitting infants weighing < or = 1000 gm. Some neonatal skin care practices showed wide consensus (> 70%) (e.g., scrub procedure for staff; use of a skin barrier under tapes/adhesives), whereas other practices showed little consensus (< 30%) (e.g., routine surveillance cultures; use of Aquaphor). Consensus on skin care practices was not found among neonatal intensive care units. Data from this survey can be used to develop studies to examine whether certain skin care management practices can improve neonatal outcomes.