Rotating nasal masks with nasal prongs reduces the incidence of moderate to severe nasal injury in preterm infants supported by noninvasive ventilation

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the association between noninvasive ventilation delivery devices and the incidence of nasal septum injury in preterm infants. Methods: This retrospective singlecenter cohort study included preterm infants supported by noninvasive ventilation. The incidence of nasal injury was compared among three groups according to the noninvasive ventilation delivery device (G1 - nasal mask; G2 - binasal prongs; and G3, rotation of nasal mask with prongs). Nasal injury was classified according to the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel as stages 1 - 4. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to estimate relative risks to identify possible predictors associated with medical device-related injuries. Results: Among the 300 infants included in the study, the incidence of medical device-related injuries in the rotating group was significantly lower than that in the continuous mask or prong groups (n = 68; 40.48%; p value