DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i08.021

Pages: 2830-2833

About 60% of term and 80% of preterm newborns develop physiological jaundice. Jaundice is regarded as pathological if it appears in first 24 -36 hrs of life, serum bilirubin rising at a rate of more than 5 mg/dl/day, jaundice persisting after 10 -14 days of life and direct bilirubin fraction > 2 mg/dl. Most dreaded complication of neonatal jaundice is kernicterus which is due to deposition of bilirubin in the brain leading to bilirubin encephalopathy and subsequently kernicterus with devastating permanent neurodevelopmental handicaps. The primary treatment of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is phototherapy and in some cases exchange transfusion. Compact Fluoroscent Light (CFL) light was the mainstay in use so far, but in recent years Light Emitting Diode (LED) has emerged as better light source for phototherapy purpose. Lot of studies have been done all over the world comparing the efficacy of both the light sources, but only few studies are available in India; hence the present study was designed to compare the efficacy. 109 healthy near term and term neonates with physiological hyperbilirubinemia were randomized to two groups i.e. LED (n=55) and CFL (n=54); the study revealed that LED lights are more efficacious than CFL lights in the management of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.