Importance: The risk of premature infants in neonatal incubators exposed to evaporated alcohol from alcohol-based disinfectants (ABDs) is unknown.
Objective: To assess alcohol concentrations in the peripheral blood of premature infants and neonatal incubators.
Design, setting, and participants: A quality improvement study comparing 2 different populations before and after introduction of ABD practice (ABD-PRAC) was conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit of a single tertiary hospital in Japan. Participants included premature infants who were born before 34 weeks of gestational age and received medical care in neonatal incubators. The study consisted of 3 periods: (1) September 1, 2020, to August 1, 2021 (prospective observation of pre-ABD-PRAC, (2) August 2 to August 22, 2021 (introduction of ABD-PRAC to medical staff and parents in the neonatal intensive care unit), and (3) August 23, 2021, to March 31, 2022 (prospective observation of post-ABD-PRAC). No follow-up studies were initiated.
Interventions: An ABD-PRAC that aimed to reduce alcohol evaporation from ABDs inside neonatal incubators was instituted: (1) place alcohol preps in the incubator just before use and remove them from the incubator as soon as possible and (2) withhold placing hands into the incubators until 60 seconds after using ABDs for disinfection (applied only to family members).
Main outcomes and measures: Blood alcohol concentration and evaporated alcohol concentrations in neonatal incubators.
Results: Disinfectant practice was assessed among 28 infants during the pre-ABD-PRAC (17 infants [10 girls]; median gestational age at birth, 29.4 [IQR, 26.3-30.3] weeks) and post-ABD-PRAC (11 infants [3 girls]; median gestational age at birth, 30.0 [IQR, 25.3-32.2] weeks) study periods. The median blood alcohol concentration was 7.0 (IQR, 5.4-9.3) mg/dL pre-ABD-PRAC and 4.2 (IQR, 2.5-7.2) mg/dL post-ABD-PRAC. The median evaporated alcohol concentration inside neonatal incubators during pre-ABD-PRAC during the day was 23.6 (IQR, 15.9-36.5) ppm and, at night, was 13.2 (IQR, 8.9-19.4) ppm; during post-ABD-PRAC, the concentration was 9.4 (IQR, 6.0-16.0) ppm during the day and 5.7 (IQR, 3.6-9.7) ppm at night. The introduction of ABD-PRAC at 22 weeks' corrected gestational age was associated with a lower blood alcohol concentration in premature infants: regression coefficient value, -8.3 (95% CI, -12.0 to -4.7).
Conclusions and relevance: In this study, alcohol evaporated from ABDs was absorbed by premature infants in neonatal incubators. The findings suggest that introduction of ABD-PRAC was associated with lower alcohol concentrations in neonatal incubators and in the blood of premature infants.