Phototherapy for neonatal jaundice

About 60% of fullterm and 80% preterm of infants develop neonatal jaundice which is either physiological or pathological in nature. One of modality of treatment is phototherapy which was discovered by the observation of one of the nurses when she noticed the decline in severity of jaundice in newborn infants who exposed to sun light. There are different colors of light that used in phototherapy, the best one is blue, then yellow then white, the action of phototherapy is made absorption of light by skin and by two mechanism photoisomerization and conversion into non toxic substance called lumirubin. The photothearpy used light with wave length 420-470 nm, so there is common mistake in population when they use the ordinary light at home as photothearpy this may expose the infant to danger of light and to delay in management of jaundice

Bilirrubinometria transcutânea: importante método na triagem do recém-nascido com hiperbilirrubinemia / Transcuneous bilirubinometry: important method in evaluation of newborn with hyperbilirubinemia

Um total de 210 medidas foram efetuadas com o bilirrubinômetro transcutâneo (BTc) na regiäo frontal de 210 recém-nascidos sadios, brancos, a termo, e que näo foram submetidos à fototerapia ou exsanguinotransfusäo. As BTc apresentaram boa correlaçäo com a bilirrúbina sérica (BS) (r = 0894; p < 0,001). A sensibilidade do teste foi de 92% e a especificidade de 90%, identificando todas as crianças com BS > 13mg/dl, com determinaçöes falso-negativas de 0,95% e falso-positivas de 8,58%. O valor preditivo negativo de 98% prediz corretamente a ausência de hiperbilirrubinemia em todos os casos. A BTc pode ser recomendada para identificar icterícia neonatal significante em RNs