1 Providene Lying-In Hospital, 50 Maude Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02908
When premature babies were exposed from birth to environmental lighting of 90 footcandles and placed under "daylight" illumination of 500 footcandles, if the indirect bilirubin appproached or rose above 10 mg/100 ml., serum bilirubin was maintained at less than 12 mg/100 ml in all but 3.1%, compared with 27.5% in a control group treated from birth and for 6 days only under environmental (90 footcandles) lighting. The difference is statistically very highly significant; and this management of jaundice avoided exposing over 80% of our prematures unnecessarily to high-intensity illumination.