title: Safety and efficacy of filtered sunlight in treatment of jaundice in African neonates.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evaluate safety and efficacy of filtered-sunlight phototherapy (FS-PT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Term/late preterm infants #14 days old with clinically significant jaundice, assessed by total bilirubin (TB) levels, were recruited from a maternity hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Sunlight was filtered with commercial window-tinting films that remove most UV and significant levels of infrared light and transmit effective levels of therapeutic blue light. After placing infants under an FS-PT canopy, hourly measurements of axillary temperatures, monitoring for sunburn, dehydration, and irradiances of filtered sunlight were performed. Treatment was deemed safe and efficacious if infants were able to stay in FS-PT for $5 hours and rate of rise of TB was ,0.2 mg/dL/h for infants #72 hours of age or TB decreased for infants .72 hours of age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 227 infants received 258 days of FS-PT. No infant developed sunburn or dehydration. On 85 (33%) of 258 treatment days, infants were removed briefly from FS-PT due to minor temperature-related adverse events. No infant met study exit criteria. FS-PT was efficacious in 92% (181/197) of evaluable treatment days. Mean 6 SD TB change was –0.06 6 0.19 mg/dL/h. The mean 6 SD (range) irradiance of FS-PT was 38 6 22 (2–115) mW/cm2/nm, measured by the BiliBlanket Meter II.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With appropriate monitoring, filtered sunlight is a novel, practical, and inexpensive method of PT that potentially offers safe and efficacious treatment strategy for management of neonatal jaundice in tropical countries where conventional PT treatment is not available.
authors.forename: Tina M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Slusher
authors.forename: Hendrik J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Vreman
authors.forename: Bolajoko O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Olusanya
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Brearley
authors.forename: Yvonne E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Vaucher
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D001831:Body Temperature; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D005374:Filtration; D006370:Heliotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006771:Hospitals, Maternity; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D007567:Jaundice, Neonatal / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin