The efficacy of double
phototherapy, in the form of conventional
phototherapy with special blue light plus fiberoptic
phototherapy, was compared with conventional
phototherapy consisting of special blue lamps alone in a relatively larger series of term newborns with significant
hyperbilirubinemia. During the study period the sum of the average spectral irradiances in the double
phototherapy group was significantly higher than that of the single
phototherapy group (p < 0.05).
Phototherapy was effective in decreasing
bilirubin levels in both groups, but the response was greater in the double
phototherapy group; the duration of exposure to
phototherapy was significantly shorter (31.2 +/- 8.5 vs. 38.98 +/- 14.7 h, p < 0.05), and the overall
bilirubin decline rate as mumol/l/h and per cent/h was significantly greater in the double
phototherapy group (4.1 +/- 1.37 vs. 3.3 +/- 0.86 mumol/l/h, and 1.29 +/- 0.38 vs. 1.02 +/- 0.44 per cent/h, p < 0.05). In
phototherapy treatment of term newborns with significant
hyperbilirubinemia, double
phototherapy provided more rapid and effective
bilirubin reduction than conventional
phototherapy alone due to higher spectral irradiance and larger body surface area exposed to
phototherapy. The value of double
phototherapy in the treatment of newborns with hemolytic
hyperbilirubinemia remains to be determined.