Sweetheart Study: Oral Glucose for Reducing Stress During Echocardiographic Assessment in Infants in the NICU

Glucose 25% and Facilitated Tucking for Reducing Procedural Stress During Neonatologist-performed Cardiac Echocardiography in Infants in the NICU

The purpose of this study is to compare the effect of a 25% glucose solution given via a soother with or without facilitated tucking with a similarly administered water placebo (control condition) on infant stress responses during and immediately after a neonatologist performed ECHO (np-ECHO).

One hundred and four infants were randomized to one of four groups during a single np-ECHO examination, at the discretion of the medical team. Randomization to soother and water (Control) with and without facilitated tucking or to soother and 25% glucose (Intervention) with or without facilitated tucking will be determined by generating randomly permuted sequential blocks of four and six allocation numbers.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Infants born between 26-42 weeks of gestational age admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit who require a np-ECHO for clinical purposes as indicated by the medical team.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Infants who have congenital anomalies, or a lethal condition in whom intensive care is not indicated;
• Infants below the gestational age of 26 completed weeks;
• Infants who have received analgesics or sedatives within 72 hours of the assessment;
• History of maternal abuse of controlled drugs and substances.
• Infants who are too unstable to receive oral medications or be exposed to a np-ECHO or who already have had an ECHO performed by a Pediatric Cardiologist within 4 hours.