Neonatal monitoring : current practice and future trends

This chapter describes the current practice of monitoring vital health parameters in critically ill newborn infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). These infants are extremely tiny and vulnerable, so that special requirements are needed. After the first decades following the start of modern neonatology the focus shifted from management to keep the baby alive to strategies to improve the quality of life. In this respect monitoring of brain function became important. In addition there is gradually growing awareness that procedural pain, discomfort and excessive sensory stimuli are detrimental for the developing preterm infants. Therefore, the authors describe non-obtrusive monitoring technologies that meet their specific demands. The authors describe how neonatal monitoring has become a multidisciplinary area which involves a unique integration of knowledge from medical science, design, technology and social study