NICU Terms

• Apnea
  Apnea of prematurity is defined as cessation of breathing by a premature infant that lasts for more than 15 seconds and/or is accompanied by hypoxia or bradycardia. Apnea is traditionally classified as either obstructive, central, or mixed...
• BPD - Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
  Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD; formerly Chronic Lung Disease of Infancy) is a chronic lung disorder that is most common among children who were born prematurely, with low birthweights and who received prolonged mechanical ventilation to treat...
• Feeding Tube - NG Tube - Gavage Feeding
  A feeding tube is a medical device used to provide nutrition to patients who cannot obtain nutrition by swallowing. The state of being fed by a feeding tube is called enteral feeding or tube feeding...
• Gestational Age
  Gestational age is the age of an embryo or fetus (or newborn infant). In humans, a common method of calculating gestational age starts counting either from the first day of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP)[1] or from 14 days before conception...
• HELLP Syndrome
  HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening obstetric complication usually considered to be a variant of pre-eclampsia. Both conditions usually occur during the later stages of pregnancy, or sometimes after childbirth...
• Intraventricular hemorrhage (Brain Bleed) IVH
  An intraventricular hemorrhage (or intraventricular haemorrhage in British English), often abbreviated "IVH," is a bleeding into the brain's ventricular system, where the cerebrospinal fluid is produced and circulates through towards the subarachnoid...
• Kangaroo Care
  Kangaroo care is a technique practiced on newborn, usually preterm, infants wherein the infant is held, skin-to-skin, with an adult. Kangaroo care for pre-term infants may be restricted to a few hours per day, but if they are medically stable that time...
• NICU
  A neonatal intensive care unit, usually shortened NICU (sometimes pronounced "Nickyou") and also called a newborn intensive care unit, intensive care nursery (ICN), and special care baby unit (SCBU [pronounced "Skiboo"], especially in Great Britain),...
• Pre-eclampsia
  Pre-eclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy (pregnancy-induced hypertension) in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine. Pre-eclampsia refers to a set of symptoms rather than any causative factor,...
• RT or Respiratory Therapist
  Respiratory therapy is an allied health field involved in the assessment and treatment of breathing disorders including chronic lung problems, such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the respiratory...
• Tracheostomy
  Among the oldest described surgical procedures, tracheotomy (also referred to as pharyngotomy, laryngotomy, and tracheostomy) consists of making an incision on the anterior aspect of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision...