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EBM IN ACTION
Clinical question
Definition of physiological jaundice1
Is sunlight an effective treatment for jaundice in term infants? Physiological jaundice is a diagnosis of exclusion. It should not fill
A womens health educator at Southern Health wanted to any of the following criteria:
know if there was any evidence that sunlight helps to reduce Clinical jaundice in the first 24 hours of life;
physiological jaundice in healthy term infants. Total serum bilirubin level > 300 mol/L in a term infant or
> 255 mol/L in a preterm infant;
Direct reacting serum bilirubin level > 30 mol/L, persisting more
Search question than 10 days in a term infant or 14 days in a preterm infant.
References
Summary of findings
1. Levene MI, Tudhope DI, Thearle MJ, editors. Essentials of neonatal medicine. 3rd
ed. Massachusetts: Blackwell Science, 2000: 143.
Our extensive search identified only the one, original study
2. Cremer RJ, Perryman PW, Richards DH. Influence of light on the hyperbiliru-
that examined sunlight exposure as a treatment for neonatal binaemia of infants. Lancet 1958; i: 1094-1097.
jaundice.2 This was a case series reporting the effect of 3. American Academy of Pediatrics. Practice parameter: management of hyper-
sunlight in jaundiced preterm, rather than term, infants. bilirubinaemia in the healthy term newborn. Pediatrics 1994; 94: 558-565.
4. Harrison SL, Buettner PG, MacLennan R. Why do mothers still sun their infants? J
The same authors then reported a case series of artificial Paediatr Child Health 1999; 35: 296-299.
light therapy for jaundiced preterm infants, which stimu- (Received 3 Oct 2002, accepted 8 Dec 2002)
lated the subsequent considerable volume of research arti-