Life-saving intensive care incubators play a vital role in the birth of a newborn’s life, but researchers say they expose babies to louder, more resonant sounds, which may increase the risk of impairing their sensitive hearing. I found
While neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) noise and its effects on susceptible patients have been the subject of much research, these new findings suggest that babies may sheds new light on incubators that last for months. .
In collaboration with the Medical University of Vienna (MUV) and scientists from Hamburg, Munich and Osnabruck, detailed acoustic measurements obtained from complex simulations of models inside and outside the incubator show that specific frequencies resonate in space. , was found to increase the noise. Reduces levels by up to 28 decibels.
“The motivation for our interdisciplinary research team is related to the question of why many premature babies suffer from hearing loss,” said co-author Christoph Reuter of the University of Vienna. “We believe what we measured in our study may be the main cause. However, understanding how to protect premature babies from such noise levels requires accurate environmental information.” Is required.”
The NICU itself is a noisy environment, often exceeding the 45 dB level recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Hearing impairment occurs in 2-10% of preterm infants who require an incubator, as opposed to 0.1% of non-NICU neonates.
Noise has a variety of direct adverse effects, such as apnea, but hearing impairment at this age can lead to more long-term problems, such as delayed language development. Incubators attenuate much of the noise level in the NICU, but this study suggests that it’s not as perfect as first thought.
“Our research focused on different real-world noises and their levels and their timbral characteristics, with two main aims,” said co-author Matthias Bertsch of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. I’m here. “First, we describe the NICU and incubator environment. Second, we provide awareness by presenting interactive materials of real-life situations.”
In this study, a manikin and measurement microphone were placed inside an incubator and exposed to various NICU sounds at the Pediatric Simulation Center at MUV. We then analyzed how the incubator adjusted the sound by measuring weighted (dBA) and unweighted decibels (dB). The former is a measurement scaled to the human hearing range.
Unlike in the womb, where most sound is muffled by the amniotic fluid and transmitted at low frequencies, the incubator environment has high frequency components and sudden sounds, especially during handling and opening. The noise of this interaction with the incubator was underestimated because the external environment is relatively noisy.
“As a closed box, an incubator typically has an inherent resonance around 100 Hz,” says Dr. Vito Giordano, senior author of MUV. “At this range, the sound inside the incubator is very loud.”
Much research has focused on weighted decibel levels to determine sound exposure, but researchers say this measure corresponds to the adult ear. Their results show a much higher level of unweighted decibels, suggesting that normal measurement methods greatly underestimate the noise exposure of babies in incubators. increase.
“Our results are not generalizable to all incubators available on the market,” warned Reuters. “Additionally, we measured in a simulated room under ideal conditions, not in everyday conditions where the sound produced by the environment would be even louder.”
The researchers add that while sound is an important sensory aspect of neonatal development, there should be more awareness of how sound resonates within an incubator. Better device design and use may reduce the risk of hearing loss.
The study was published in a journal The forefront of pediatrics.
Source: University of Vienna
