PEDIATRICS Vol. 73 No. 6 June 1984, pp. 881-882
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Why Do We Keep Using Phototherapy in Healthy Newborns?

HERMAN A. HEIN MD1

1 Department of Pediatrics, University Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242

To the Editor.—

Prevention of kernicterus is a laudable pursuit. However, unsubstantiated beliefs about neonates at risk for kernicterus may have caused numerous babies to receive needless phototherapy and/or exchange transfusions. Early studies that suggested the association of bilirubin levels greater than 20 mg/dL and kernicterus, and on which modern policy seems to be based, were heavily slanted toward babies who were preterm or had hemolytic disease or sepsis.1-3 Few, if any data attest to the risks of bilirubin levels in excess of 20 mg/dL but less than 25 mg/dL in otherwise healthy, term neonates.




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