Intermittent versus continuous phototherapy among term infants presenting with non-hemolytic moderate hyperbilirubinemia at a tertiary care hospital: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of intermittent versus continuous phototherapy among term infants presenting with non-hemolytic moderate hyperbilirubinemia at a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Single Center, Open Label, Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial. Setting: Department of Neonatology, Sir Sadiq Abbasi Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Period: January 2022 to December 2022. Material & Methods: A total of 38 neonates having maternal age between 18-35 years and gestational age at the time birth above or equal to 37 weeks presenting and admitted with non-haemolytic hyperbilirubinemia were included. These neonates (19 in each group) were randomized adopting lottery method to either continuous phototherapy group (CPT) or intermittent phototherapy group (IPT). At the time of enrollment, demographic characteristics like age (days), gender, birth weight (kg), mode of delivery, gestational age (weeks), maternal age (years), total serum bilirubin (mg/dl) in the neonates were noted. Total serum bilirubin levels were recorded after 24 hours of phototherapy. Results: In a total of 38 neonates, 20 (52.6%) were boys. The mean age was calculated to be 3.3±1.8 days. Mode of delivery was cesarean section in 24 (63.2%) neonates. The mean total serum bilirubin levels at baseline was recorded to be 15.5±1.7 mg/dl while comparison of baseline total serum bilirubin levels were not statistically significant different between both study groups (p=0.3715). The mean serum bilirubin levels after 24-hours were recorded to be 11.3±0.9 mg/dl in CPT group versus 11.0±1.1 mg/dl while the difference was noted to be statistically insignificant. (p=0.3637). Conclusion: The intermittent phototherapy yielded relatively similar reduction in total serum bilirubin when compared to continuous phototherapy among neonates with non-haemolytic moderate hyperbilirubinemia.