Confiabilidade do equipamento S-FLEX® para verificação da pressão de sucção não nutritiva em recém-nascidos

Abstract

The evaluation of non-nutritive sucking in newborns is part of the rotine in many Neonatal Intensive Care Units, and it is performed with the gloved finger technique, by an examiner, at most of times. The purpose to this study was to establish the reliability of S-FLEX® equipment to verify the non-nutritive sucking pressure in term newborns. Thirty healthy term newborns, from both sexes, were evaluated between the first and the third day of life. Two evaluations were executed in each newborn, by two different examiners (examiner A and examiner B), with an interval of 3 to 4 hours between evaluations. In each evaluation, maximal and mean non-nutritive sucking pressure were determined in three consecutive moments. Repeatability and reproducibility of the found measures were examined to verify reliability. To calculate repeatability, three consecutive measures, in each one of the moments, were compared through Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures. The maximal sucking pressure, in the first evaluation (examiner A) was 10.44 (±2.25), 10.12 (±2.25) and 9.73 (±2.61) mmHg, (p=0.120), respectively in first, second and third sequential measurements, and, in the second evaluation (examiner B), the values were 10.10 (±2.35), 9.98 (±2.02) and 10.37 (±2.29), (p=0.404). The mean for sucking pressure in the first evaluation (examiner A) was 3.64 (±1.04), 3.59 (±1.04) and 3.56 (±1.03), (p=0.852), and, in the second evaluation (examiner B), it was 3.59 (±1.04), 3.51 (±0.92) and 3.63 (±1.04), (p=0.721). Reproducibility was verified according to analysis of the obtained measures by different examiners, through interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). To maximal sucking pressure, correlation coefficient was 0.708 (p=0.001) and, to mean pressure, it was 0.828 (p<0.001), which demonstrates good and excellent correlation, respectively. S-FLEX® proved itself a reliable equipment to determine maximal and mean non-nutritive sucking pressure in healthy term newborns.