Phototherapy in Full-Term Infants with Hemolytic Disease Secondary to ABO Incompatibility
1 From the Department of Pediatrics, Divisions of Primary Care and Hematology/Oncology, University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles
Current guidelines for treatment of hemolytic disease of the newborn make no differentiation between ABO and Rh incompatibility. A protocol that prolonged the observation period in full-term, ABO-incompatible infants with positive Coombs' tests who were otherwise healthy was tested. Postponement of treatment made it possible to determine more accurately which infants needed phototherapy. This dramatically decreased the number of infants treated without increasing their risk of requiring exchange transfusion.
Key Words: ABO incompatibility hemolytic disease phototherapy hyperbilirubinemia neonatal jaundice
Submitted on May 23, 1983
Accepted on November 22, 1983




