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Evidence summaries

Phototherapy for Neonatal Jaundice

Phototherapy appears to decrease the proportion of infants needing transfusion for neonatal jaundice Level of evidence: "B"

A topic in Clinical Evidence 1 summarizes the results of one RCT comparing phototherapy with no treatment for neonatal jaundice in a group of 141 infants weighing 2000-2499 g at birth, whose serum bilirubin level was at least 10mg/dl. Phototherapy decreased the number of infants with exchange transfusion compared with no treatment (4.3% with phototherapy vs 25.4% with not treatment, p = 0.002).

Phototherapy is an effective treatment and an established practice for hyperbilirubinemia ,2 3 4.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (few patients).

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References

Primary/Secondary Keywords