University of New Mexico School of Medicine Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Background: The SARS-COVID-19 pandemic requires hospitals to increase infection control practices and implement policies calling for universal face masks. These policies changed the hospital milieu for newborns as visitors were either limited or entirely restricted. For newborns experiencing neonatal opiate withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), hospitalization is often prolonged. Protocols for care for infants with NOWS emphasize the importance of non-pharmacologic care as first-line treatment (holding infants, swaddling, and rooming-in caregivers.) With changes to infection control policies, providers are concerned infants with NOWS are experiencing complications including longer stays and more complex clinical courses, which may put this group at higher risk for long-term developmental delays. Objective: Given the recent changes required to improve infection control during the pandemic, we hypothesized that infants with NOWS born during this period will have a more complicated hospital course. Specifically, we aim to evaluate NOWS severity, defined as utilization of pharmacological intervention and length of treatment, combined with length of hospital stay in infants born prior to the pandemic with the diagnosis of NOWS. These findings will be compared with a sample of infants born during the pandemic with a diagnosis of NOWS. Design/Methods: Data was extracted from the EMR, de-identified and pooled by an Honest Broker. Demographic information including infant sex, ethnicity, race, and county of mother’s residence were obtained. Additionally, information from the pregnancy was collected including gestational age, growth parameters of the infant, what the prenatal substance exposure included, and any additional pregnancy complications. All infants included in the study were divided into two cohorts, pre-COVID and COVID, to represent the population born prior to the pandemic and those born during the pandemic. The primary outcomes to be analyzed for both cohorts include: length of stay, pharmacologic treatment, nasogastric feeding tube placement and need for speech consult.
