St. Charles first NICU in state to use specialized ventilator

Newborns in the St. Charles Neonatal Intensive Care Unit can now breathe easier, thanks to a new ventilator technology that helps makes breathing more comfortable for infants that need support. St. Charles is the first NICU in Oregon to use Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA), which has been used to assist more than a dozen babies at St. Charles in the past six months.

"We are proud to lead the way in Oregon. It's one more way we are giving babies the best possible start," said Cammie Egan, an advanced practice provider in the St. Charles NICU. "NAVA is safer and more comfortable than traditional ventilation. This is especially important for babies in the NICU whose lungs may have not yet fully developed, as the average gestational age for our NAVA patients is just over 29 weeks."

Egan explains NAVA is more comfortable for the patients because it follows the babies' cues. Whereas a traditional ventilator helps patients breathe by assisting with the breath on a steady cadence, NAVA assists with breathing by following the patient's signals. A catheter with electrodes is placed into the baby's stomach, where it measures the electrical activity of the diaphragm.

"That tells us when the baby wants to take a breath and then the ventilator supports that breath. It synchs the ventilator with the patient's natural respiratory signals," said Blake Andrews, manager of respiratory therapy for St. Charles.

Andrews said using NAVA promotes sleep and development.Infants who are cared for with NAVA are able to transition to independent breathing more quickly.