Abstract
A new, still to be improved, neonatal phototherapy (PT) device - BiliblanketTM (BB), Ohmeda, USA - has been developed in the form of a fiber optic system, whose radically different method of application, directly to the baby's skin, implies some decrease in the usual PT side-effects (insensible water loss, birth weight decrement) and less physical and psychological stress to the jaundiced neonate. To compare its efficiency to conventional PT, 208 healthy preterm infants presenting non-haemolytic hyperbilirubinemia in the first four days of life - with no statistically difference in gestational age, birth weight, age and bilirubin (BR) levels at onset of PT - were subdivided at random in four study groups receiving respectively fiber optic (BB) PT, Special Blue (SB), White (DA) and Green (G) fluorescent lamp PT. Results (values represent mean ± SEM) are reported in the following tab.
Even though fiber optic PT showed significantly lower efficacy during the 24 hrs of PT compared to all (p<.001) but DA fluorescent lamps, after 24 hrs fiber optic light source and fluorescent lamps showed similar efficiency (p>.5).
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Donzelli, G., Moroni, M., Paparo, M. et al. PHOTOTHERAPY FOR NEONATAL JAUNDICE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FIBER OPTIC LIGHT AND FLUORESCENT LAMPS. Pediatr Res 32, 625 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199211000-00121
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199211000-00121