ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze, through bibliographical survey, the use of speech therapy care in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in cases of newborns with congenital heart disease. The source data is from Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), SciELO and the search engine of the National Library of Medicine in the databases PubMed, also the Google Scholar search system (http // scholar.google.com.br). Thirty two works were studied and the use of speech therapy in NICU´s was described in twenty eight of them which presented as procedures the assessment and stimulation of the sensory-motor-oral system, using nonnutritive and nutritive sucking and hearing screening techniques. However, the characteristics of newborns with congenital heart disease and the insertion of the speech therapist into cardiac neonatal ICU are not mentioned, not even the description of the objectives and practice of such professional. The care of patients with congenital heart disease should be differentiated as it has particular features that can undermine the performance concerning feeding. Only one publication followed the inclusion criteria of the present survey. It describes the transition of the direct gastric feeding to breast feeding in preterm newborns with heart disease, with age corrected, in a newborn intensive care unit. It was possible to verify the lack of works published on speech therapy intervention with newborns with heart disease, which indicates the need of new studies on the theme, as the care of such patients should be differentiated once they present particularities that could undermine the performance of feeding.
Keywords:
Heart Defects Congenital; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal