A Comparative Study between High Side Lying and Side Lying Position on Oxygen Saturation in Preterm Infants

Background: Premature birth, commonly used as a synonym for preterm birth, refers to the birth of a baby before its organs mature enough to allow normal postnatal survival and growth and development as a child. Positioning an infant appropriately is one of the easiest ways to provide postural support that has both an immediate and lasting impact on an infant's motor development. We can prevent complications like respiratory distress syndrome, chronic lung disease, pneumonia by proper positioning of child. No relationship between these two positions with oxygen saturation is yet proved in preterm infants.

Methods: This was a comparative study between high side lying and side lying position that were randomly assigned to 40 preterm infants i.e. those who were born in less than 37 weeks gestation age and were haemodynamically stable. They were made to lie in each position in neonatal nursery under constant supervision for 3 regular hours in same day. Saturation of peripheral oxygen in infant was recorded by pulse oximeter every 15 minutes during these 3 hours and monitoring was continued till it reached the baseline again. The infant was assigned in the next position once oxygen saturation reached the baseline again. Random order of positioning was used.

Results: The influence of both positions on the saturation of peripheral oxygen (SPO2) in preterm infants was then evaluated and results formulated using paired t-test for evaluation of data. The data was collected with positioning using Pulse Oximeter as an outcome measure.

Conclusion: This highlighted that high side lying is better than side lying in improving saturation of peripheral oxygen in preterm infants.