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How does Proven Airlock Protection reduce risk in the NICU?

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Mold and bacteria easily grow in pump tubing when moisture becomes trapped inside it. The Ameda HygieniKit™ is the only breast pump milk collection system with Proven Airlock Protection to help protect expressed milk and the babies who receive it from bacteria, mold, and viruses.

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), infection control is crucial to positive health outcomes. The solid silicone barrier in the Ameda HygieniKit can reduce the risk of infection spread among ill and preterm infants by keeping pump tubing dry. This solid barrier prevents air flow between the expressed milk and tubing. This keeps moisture and milk aerosols out of the thin, hard-to-clean tubing, which prevents the growth and spread of bacteria, mold and viruses while pumping.

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America, an independent, nonprofit organization whose guidelines many hospitals use to set protocols, recognized the clinical significance of a solid barrier in its 2006 publication:
 

        “Pump tubing exposed to aerosols of milk or water can become contaminated with bacteria or mold growth… A barrier between the milk and the pump connection is important to protect the milk….”1

Medical literature documents the risks of breast pumps to ill or preterm newborns.
 

        “Poor maintenance and improper cleaning of breast pumps and milk collection kits has been associated with illness and mortality in isolated situations….”1

“Breast Pumps…carry the same inherent risk of infection as other shared durable medical equipment.”
-- Janet S. Kinney, M.D., Neonatologist, Fort Worth, Texas


In all hospital pump kits before 1994, suction at the breast depended upon the free movement of air between the milk collection containers and the pump motor. Because hospital pumps were shared by mothers, this older milk-collection technology was designed to prevent cross-contamination. However, self-contamination still occurred as mothers reused their pump kits. One researcher documented this self-contamination when he seeded milk with bacteria and found that with every pumping he detected this bacteria further back inside the pump tubing.2

To prevent the spread of infection in the NICU from contaminated tubing, manufacturers’ instructions for these older-design kits require that users inspect pump tubing for moisture and milk after each pumping. When milk or moisture is seen, narrow pump tubing must then be dried, cleaned, or replaced.

In 1994, Ameda’s engineers took milk collection technology to a new level when they redesigned Ameda’s kit and added the silicone diaphragm. Independent lab tests found that viruses and bacteria cannot penetrate this solid barrier while pumping.3

In the process, this revolutionary new design simplified pump use and care for both stressed parents and busy NICU staff. The Ameda HygieniKit with Proven Airlock Protection is the only hospital pump kit that eliminates the need for routine tubing inspection and care. Simplifying pump care decreases staff workload, patient stress, and reduces the risk to compromised infants.

The most significant innovations in healthcare products are those that prevent adverse events without the need for instruction and routine care. Building quality into a product—as Ameda did with its HygieniKit—improves product safety by removing human error from the equation.

References
1Jones, F. and M.R. Tully. 2006. Best Practice for Expressing, Storing and Handling Human Milk in Hospitals, Homes and Child Care Settings. Raleigh NC: Human Milk Banking Association of North America, pp. 5, 13-14.

2Blenkharn, J.I. 1989. Infection risks from electrically operated breast pumps. J Hosp Infect 13:27-31.

3 Melzer, D. 2001. Ameda HygieniKit with Patented Diaphragm – Barrier to Bacterial and Viral Penetration Ameda Publication No. AL906229-901.