Intermittent Phototherapy vs Continuous Phototherapy in Treating Neonatal Jaundice - A Randomized Controlled Trial

Intermittent Phototherapy. Babies who fulfil inclusion criteria will be selected into the study. Baseline serum bilirubin will be taken. They will undergo phototherapy for 10 hours and phototherapy will stop. After 6 hours without phototherapy, venous blood gas will be taken to see the bilirubin level as to prevent rebound jaundice. If the level requires phototherapy, we will restart the phototherapy and withdraw them from study to proceed with standard treatment. If they do not require phototherapy, another serum bilirubin will be taken at 24 hours of study. If they require another phototherapy, it is considered treatment failure. We will restart the phototherapy and proceed with standard treatment. The level that used to decide babies requiring phototherapy will be based on their age and risk following Malaysia Paediatric Protocol page 139. The phototherapy machine used is the same for both groups which is Babyblue LED Phototherapy Unit. It consists of 8 LED lights at the top chamber each delivering 25 - 35 µW/cm²/nm. To ensure adherence to the intervention, we will place baby in a cot and place them under phototherapy. The nursing time is same for all babies, this is to minimize interruption of treatment. Medical Officer and nurses will participate in this intervention including starting phototherapy, blood taking and nursing care of the patient,