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A Randomized Control Trial, Usher, Alcock, And Petra

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In a randomized control trial by Smith, Usher, Alcock, and Petra (2013), the researchers aim to determine whether the use of NeoWrap, a polyethylene occlusive wrap, immediately after birth was more effective than standard protocol to control hypothermia in NICU admissions. Participants consist of 92 infants under 27 weeks of gestation and 44 infants less than 30 weeks gestation. The infants are randomly assigned to be in either the control or the intervention group; the control group is transferred under the prewarmed heater immediately after birth, dried and wrapped with prewarmed towels, and applied a hat. The intervention group is wrapped from the neck the down with the polyethylene wrap before being transferred to the prewarmed heater and undergoing the aforementioned process. World Health Organization’s definition for hypothermia, as cited by Smith et al. (2013), is a temperature of less than 36.5 degrees Celsius. This parameter was used by the researchers, and the temperatures of the infants were taken upon birth and upon NICU admissions as well as admission time for both the control and intervention groups. The temperature was taken axillary on the infant at birth, upon admission to the NICU and every 30 minutes using a digital thermometer until the infant reached 120 minutes postadmission. The results showed that although the usage of wrap increased the temperature in neonates less than 27 weeks old, no statistically significant difference on neonates 27 to 29

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