SUPINE VERSUS TURNING POSITION ON BILIRUBIN LEVEL DURING PHOTOTHERAPY IN HEALTHY TERM JAUNDICED NEONATES

Position changes are believed to increase the efficacy of phototherapy and this practice is routinely used in all neonatal departments in our country. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of routine turning on the total serum bilirubin (TSB) concentration versus only supine position. In a randomized clinical trial fifty healthy term jaundiced neonates who were admitted to the neonatal ward were selected. All babies were healthy tem1 jaundiced neonates more than 48 hours of age delivered after an uncomplicated pregnancy and had indirect hyperbilirubinemia with TSB 2: 15 mg/dL in 49- to 72-hour-oldjaundiced infants and equal or more than 17 mg/dL in 2:72-hours-old ones. Twenty five (turning group) babies were changed from supine to prone position every 150 minutes followed by a break of the 30 minutes for feeding and routine nursing care. The supine group (n=25) were kept in the supine position during the entire study period. TSB was obtained before phototherapy, 12, 24, and 48 hours after phototherapy. The analysis of data was done by SPSS and paired T and T independent student test. These two groups were similar in age, sex, weight at admission, duration of phototherapy, hematocrit and reticulocyte count. The average of bilirubin in these two groups, before phototherapy (p=0.93), 12 (p=0.58), 24 (p=0.74) and 48 hours (p=0.93) after phototherapy respectively were not significant. The results of this study demonstrated that TSB is not affected by the baby's position during phototherapy.