Impact of Infant-Polysomnography Studies on Discharge Management and Outcomes: A 5 Year Experience from a Tertiary Care Unit

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of infant-polysomnography studies performed in the NICU on management and outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study to collect demographics and data on infant-polysomnography studies between Jan 2010 to Dec 2014. RESULTS: 110 premature neonates had polysomnography study performed at 36.9 ± 2.5 weeks post menstrual age. Almost all the studies were read as abnormal and 95% of the studied infants were discharged home on a cardiorespiratory monitor. 20% of the subjects had apnea >20 s, 18% had apnea of 15–20 s and 50% of infants had apnea of 10–15 s. 24.5% infants were discharged home on caffeine, 28% on metoclopramide and 24% on antacids. There were 11 readmissions for apparent life threatening events with no until 6 month-corrected age. There was no association between polysomnography results and readmission. There was a decline in polysomnography studies performed each year. CONCLUSION: Cardiorespiratory monitoring, medications and polysomnography studies do not predict outcomes.