Estimated Peripheral Blood Flow in Premature Newborn Infants

Premature infants are very susceptible to changes in their physical environment. It is well known i.e. that a relatively small fall in incubator temperature may result in a substantial fall in body temperature, which apparently is not compensated for a sufficient rise in metabolic rate1. Harpin and Rutter2 have demonstrated that, if humidity in the incubator is high, very premature infants have a higher and more stable body temperature. This is probably related to a reduced evaporative heat loss at the high humidity.