Transport incubator equipment

Abstract

Because of the high cost–low volume nature of neonatal intensive care, transportation of sick infants to available beds has always been an necessity, in order that efficient use of resources could be assured. However, when small babies are transported from one hospital to another it is not possible to rely on the same approach as that employed in older patients who, in fact, are moved relatively rarely in order to receive intensive care. Preterm infants in particular need an environment with ‘air conditioning’ because of their immature heat balance. This requirement has most commonly been met by combining an incubator with a variety of other pieces of equipment to form a mobile intensive care unit in one transportable ‘box’. In such a transport incubator system all the equipment has to be very small (to fit in the transport vehicle), light (to aid fixation and safety) and transportable. The system itself must be fitted with supplies of power and relevant gases, whilst being capable of using external supplies when these are available. Some of the technical issues in relation to such systems will be explained in this article. The alternative approach — specially adapted vehicles — has been employed relatively rarely around the world and will not be discussed here.