CPAP, SiPAP, High Flow ??

Specialties NICU

Published

I was wondering what other units use. We use SiPAP and CPAP. We quit using Vapotherm a couple years ago after several babies died, and apparently the water was growing things. From what I hear the company fixed the problem and now it works great. I LOVED vapotherm while we had it. I HATE our CPAP and SiPAP "spartan" hats, prongs and masks!!!

So what do you use?? How do you like it?

Specializes in Neonatal nursing (paediatric trained).

We use CPAP and Vapotherm. I don't think I mind CPAP as much as the babies do, and I think we're both happy when we get to try out VT.

Specializes in NICU.

We use all three. We consider them progressive levels. We don't use a ton of SiPap, but we might try it on a kid who is failing extubation to CPAP in order to prevent reintubation. Or when we extubate pretty early micros. We often extubate to regular old CPAP. Then the next progressive step would be high flow cannula. We don't use the Vapotherm brand though. We use a Fisher & Paykel humidifier. Not every kid progresses through all three or even two of these steps. I appreciate high flow cannulas a lot because it seems like we can use CPAP a lot less!

Specializes in NICU.
We use all three. We consider them progressive levels. We don't use a ton of SiPap, but we might try it on a kid who is failing extubation to CPAP in order to prevent reintubation. Or when we extubate pretty early micros. We often extubate to regular old CPAP. Then the next progressive step would be high flow cannula. We don't use the Vapotherm brand though. We use a Fisher & Paykel humidifier. Not every kid progresses through all three or even two of these steps. I appreciate high flow cannulas a lot because it seems like we can use CPAP a lot less!

We pretty much do the same thing :-)

We use mostly high flow. On some preemies we will use CPAP and sometimes on bigger kids if they are on 8 L high flow and it's not enough. Some fellows love it and some don't. When they are on CPAP we rotate between mask and prongs to prevent skin breakdown.

Specializes in NICU.

We use CPAP, BiPAP (is this the same as SiPAP?), and occasionally HFNC. BiPAP is used less frequently, as is HFNC, but we use a lot of CPAP here, and it is almost always prong CPAP. I have only used the little pillow mask here once. We use the PB840 vent, so it has the CPAP and BiPAP modes right in it. We also sometimes use CPAP with pressure support.

We use Sipap and NCPAP exclusively. I do not like High Flow Cannula because I think it increases the work of breathing after using the Infant Flow driver that has the fluidic flip. In my opinion a nasal cannula is a step backward from NCPAP. We have been very successful with NCPAP on babies 27 weeks and above. Below 27 weeks we usually put on HFOV to get Curosurf then extubate within 48 - 72 hours to NCPAP. Our chronic lung disease (

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Specializes in ICN.

We use a lot of CPAP, which can be a pain with the masks/prongs and keeping the little hat tight on the baby's head, but it is a really good treatment for many of our smaller PRDS babies and BPD, too. I don't know Sipap. We used to use Vapotherm, as well, but during that time, our respiratory therapists jerry-rigged what I used to call MacGyver Vapotherm, but is really just their version of high flow and that works great, we love it. We frequently give the CPAP babies' noses a break by sprinting them on the high flow for periods of time until they are weaned off the CPAP. Then the high flow is used until they can handle a regular nasal cannula with a lower flow rate.

Dawn

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