Health Care : Current Reviews

Application of tactile/kinesthetic stimulation in preterm infants

Euro Health Care and Fitness Summit

September 01-03, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Vanessa Pepino

Science University of Campinas, Brazil

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

Preterm infants are exposed daily to number of stresses in the neonatal intensive care unit inherent to the critical care they need to survive. It has already been shown that this exposure can affect its development, language, social-emotional and adaptivebehavior. Tactile stimulation sometimes associated with kinesthetic stimulation has been the object of clinical studies since the 1960s and is used in preterm infants along with the standard clinical treatment. Tactile stimulation has advantages of being non invasive and a relatively inexpensive technique; generally some kind of benefit such as faster weight gain, shorter hospital stay and better behavior, among others, was reported by studies that used this technique in preterm infants. Tactile stimulation seems to represent a potential tool to improve pre term health. The differences and similarities between the methods were reviewed in clinical trials and were highlighted in an attempt to improve the methodological quality of future trials.

Biography :

Vanessa Pepino graduated in Physiotherapy from the Catholic University of Campinas- PUCCAMP (2002). She received Post-graduate in Osteopathy by Osteopathy School Madrid (2003-2007). She is mainly involved in the formation of RPG (Institute Philippe Souchard-2003) and other manual therapy methods, focusing on adults, children and babies. She has obtained Master in Sciences with the concentration areas on Child and Adolescent Health - Science University of Campinas, UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil (2013). She is currently a PhD student of the Program in Child and Adolescent Health, Science University of Campinas, UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil.

Email: vanpepino@yahoo.com